As a HyperCard User, you've come to rely on a tool that can be whatever you need. Simple, powerful, and robust. But let's face it, if you wish to continue to rely on it, you are stuck with a six year old system.

What if there was a way to migrate your existing HyperCard stacks to run on Apple's latest and greatest Macs, all in an environment just as simple and robust, yet with even more power. The fact is that there is simply no better alternative than SuperCard.

You'll also find a ton of interface enhancements including support for multiple windows (including floating palettes and modal dialogs), each with their own backgrounds and cards; Mac OS X themed buttons, controls, and indicators; and object based menus and menu items. Your stacks can now escape the dated look and feel of HyperCard and become a thing of beauty.

But even with its additional features, SuperCard remains HyperCard's closest cousin. Most experienced HyperCard users can migrate their stacks to SuperCard in a matter of minutes.

So, if the thought of bringing your old stacks up to date appeals to you, please take a few moments to investigate the topics below. We think you'll agree your stacks can be better than ever in SuperCard.

As a HyperCard user, you'll feel right at home in SuperCard. Cards and Backgrounds just as in HyperCard. Buttons and Fields as well. Its scripting language (SuperTalk) is over 80% compatible with your existing HyperTalk scripts. In fact, SuperTalk is essentially a super-set of HyperTalk, expanded with hundreds of new words for added functionality and power.

SuperCard also expands on the graphic nature of HyperCard. Color paint and draw tools, the ability to import color graphics from a wide variety of formats (including PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, and native PhotoShop files), and to script their size, location, and behavior just like buttons.


SuperCard's HyperCard Converter application will quickly convert your HyperCard stack to a SuperCard project. All backgrounds, cards, card objects, their contents, and associated scripts are placed into a single window of a new SuperCard project. If your stack was using XCMD or XFCN resources, their code will not be executable in Mac OS X.

Palette resources should also be replaced with a new window using the palette style (yes, SuperCard supports multiple windows in a single project; each containing their own stack of cards).

Finally, you will find most converted stacks will need to have their scripts "tweaked" a bit to ensure error-free execution in SuperCard. Depending on the stack this can be as simple as making some minor syntax changes to a number of scripts, or more complicated with you having to design some workarounds for unsupported features like reports or marked cards.

For more information on the kinds of changes you'll need to make after converting your stack, please click on the syntax and unsupported icons below.

SuperCard is a color application, so any use of color objects or transitions you have created using AddColor or other externals will need to be recreated using SuperCard's native color capabilities.

And if you have been using HyperTalk to woof up custom menus on the fly, you'll be happy to know that menus and their items are objects in SuperCard just like buttons and fields, each with their own script and properties.

Once created, menus can be inserted and removed from the menubar at will. They can even be copied from one project to another using SuperEdit! No more "do menu" because there are SuperTalk commands for everything that menus do. "Do menu 'delete card'" is now simply "delete card".


SuperTalk (SuperCard's scripting language) is over 80% compatible with HyperTalk. In fact, many terms exist in SuperTalk only for HyperCard compatibility. However there are differences you will need to account for after converting your stacks to SuperCard projects.

All but the simplest stacks will need some changes to be made to various scripts in order to run without error. In most cases these are minor and SuperCard's script error dialog allows you to go to the specific line containing the error any time one is encountered.

HyperCard Syntax Help Addition

SuperCard's Help System is extensible, so we have created a new Help Addition that puts this information at your finger tips; hyperlinked, searchable, and book-markable, as with the rest of the SuperCard Help Library.

The new Help Addition will help you easily discover the SuperTalk equivalents to HyperTalk words that may be throwing a script error or result in other unexpected behavior in your converted project.


Old XMCD's and XFCN's - External commands and functions designed for use with HyperCard will not be executable in OS X. Many externals, such as those designed for color, QuickTime, palettes, etc., are unneeded in SuperCard because of native support. In addition, there are many externals that ship with SuperCard that may offer the functionality you require.

Shared Text - This HyperCard property allows background fields across multiple cards to contain the same text, while SuperCard's background fields will always contain unique data. One method to share text across all cards of a background is to create a draw text object. This can also be worked around by using a user defined property of the field and a simple script putting the text into the field via an openCard handler.

Reports - HyperCard's report printing mechanism is not supported in SuperCard, but complex layouts with graphics and text are easily implemented using another window as the page layout, and scripting the population of text fields and graphics for printing. SuperCard even supports high resolution bitmaps and vector graphics.

Marked Cards - Marking cards essentially sets a boolean flag on cards so that they may be referred to as a subset of the cards in a stack. SuperCard does not support this property. Depending on what you are using marked cards for, one of the several techniques may be used, the simplest being simply setting up a simple 'marked' user defined property you can set and get to determine if a card is marked.


If you are an experienced HyperCard scripter you should be able to make the necessary changes in your converted stacks to get them to run in SuperCard without error in a minimum of time.

And while the changes that need to be made will usually be a simple matter for the stack's author, we understand that many folks need to convert stacks they are using that have been created by others. Solutions Etcetera's HyperCard Conversion Concierge Service can provide start-to-finish conversion of your HyperCard stack to a SuperCard project.

If you get stuck on something, consider posting a question to the the SuperCard Online Forums. There are a number of users there that have made the switch from HyperCard to SuperCard, any number of which should be able to point you in the right direction.


If you still have any of your original HyperCard materials you can save up to $80.00 on your SuperCard purchase. Qualifying materials include either an install disk, printed documentation, or proof of purchase. Click here for more details.