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What Mac OS X Could Learn From Windows
An anonymous reader writes "It is almost unheard of to see something written about what OS X could learn from Windows but this details some good examples. And yes, it includes the right-click mouse." I find about half the suggestions compelling enough to be worth griping over, and the other half off-base, but YMMV.
I think the idea is that your cursor doesn't change into a dozen different zany pictures and adopt a dozen different functions depending on which part of the window you're pointing at.
It's all about simplicity.
there's more than one way to do me.
$4.95 US at your local Fry's Electronics.
I'm a recent switcher (I bought my Mac Mini the day after Tiger came out) and my biggest gripe is the control key placement. I love my Mac to death, but it's useless for any text editing because I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts. Pressing Ctrl + C on a PC keyboard to copy text is easy; Command + C on my Mac requires me to twist my fingers because the Command key is too close to the alphabetic keys to be a natural reach.
I don't think it's just a matter of getting used to it, and of breaking old habits. No, the placement of the Command key really is detrimental to its use, at least as far as my fingers are concerned. Until today I've been trying to live with it, but now I'm going to find a way to remap the keys so as to move Command farther to the left.
Go into your keychain and turn on the menubar addon. Then you can lock your screen with two clicks of your one-button mouse.
Simple.
seSales, Point of Sale software for OS X.
Buy an aftermarket mouse and plug it in. Instant scroll wheel.
seSales, Point of Sale software for OS X.
1) Compatible control keys. Switching between Mac and Windows this drives me nuts. I have to consciously think
OS X is not Windows, strangely enough, some people even choose it above Windows because it is different.
2) Save button on toolbars. I don't think any of the Apple software ever gives you the option to include a Save button.
Learn to use Cmd-S, buttons for every command is a Windows thing, though it has crept in in some programs like MS Word.
3) A multi button mouse. And you thought I'd say two.
Plug in your PC mouse.
Only show relevant file types in open and save dialogs. For those who like seeing every file that's every existed in their Documents folder, give them a checkbox to show all files.
This is debatable, but the only one of his points which might have some foundation - it would be handy to be able to winnow files in the open dialog. Presumably the justification is that files should always be visible, even if they're not directly available in a certain program.
In fact in Tiger you can do this in a neat way with Smart Folders (create one for only word documents, one for images etc, then put them in your sidebar or someplace easy to find from the open dialog).
Sort folders to top of directory listings I know that we don't go folder mining as much since we got Spotlight, so I won't labor on about this one.
Click the 'Kind' column in column view, or smart folders again.
More context sensitive help. I notice since I first raised this two years ago, more of it has crept into OS X. So I guess at least I can't be flamed for this one!
I assume this means tooltips. Don't like them myself, as I feel they encourage GUI designers to litter the screen with cryptic buttons with the excuse that users can use tool-tips to decode them.
Now why is it that I can list all the features I want Leopard to have and as long as none of them are from Windows, its cool?
But dare suggest OS X needs a feature already in Windows and the world comes down on you.
Additional features are not always welcome, efficient or even necessary.
What's far more important than an extensive feature list is that features are well integrated, consistent and well thought out - throughout an operating system and the applications. If I have one major criticism of Apple recently it's that they have forgotten to keep things simple and consistent in their myriad home-grown apps.
And if you can take the heat, what would you like to see Apple borrow from Windows?
There are undoubtedly a few ideas in Windows (which haven't already been borrowed already : ) which would be great on OS X. Some parts of the Finder could do with help for a start (Network, thumbnail browsing etc). Any long time Windows users like to suggest some? (No, things which are just different don't count, there has to some things which work better).
Sometimes I think Slashdot articles would be more thoughtful and insightful if the editors just linked to comments from previous stories rather than uninformed nonsense like this.
I use a simple AppleScript named "Lock Screen" that I launch with LaunchBar. Cmd-space, lo, done.
there's more than one way to do me.
YES! Simply command or option click and drag would make a window resizable from that corner. That's been my feature request since 1987.
There IS a hack for this or something like it.
Lemme dig it up.
http://www.ocs.cz/OCSmartHacks/
There ya go!
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
It's not enough to have the software support for a second mouse button, the OS interface and apps have to support it.
This is a source of endless frustration for me on the Macintosh. The finder is missing endless opportunities to make using it easier via context menus. In some places it does nothing, in other places both mouse buttons do the same thing. This is a MAJOR usability flaw. It represents a basic lack of understanding of what a context button is for.
Quicktime. Second mouse button does the same thing as the first. iTunes. Missing several useful options on the context menus. Finder: needs FAR FAR more context menus.
By Apple apologists' own admission, adding these features will in no way affect the people who have no second mouse button. But it will be a massive help for the people who do actually want to use it.
OK seriously I don't have a problem here but I am training myself to use two hands rather than one for this to reduce wrist problems. I use the right meta keys for shortcuts on the left and vice versa - it does also make all keys easily accesible.
I hereby inform you that I have NOT been required to provide any decryption keys.
From article: Switching between Mac and Windows this drives me nuts. I have to consciously think "command-C or control-C?" It shouldn't have to be that way. And if you're running RDC or VPC and copying and pasting between OS X and Windows!! Sheesh!
If you really must do this, you can do it in 'system preferences'. Just go to the 'Keyboard & Mouse' pref pane and click the modifier keys button. voila! switch control and option or whatever else you want.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
Sidetrack gives you 5 buttons and two scroll wheels all on your trackpad.
seSales, Point of Sale software for OS X.
What i hate about the Finder is when you open a view of a Folder using "View As List", and then have to manually tweak the window size in order to fit the list details in that view.
.. and it will resize the list view columns as well, so that the data just fits nicely.
.. why isn't Finder smart enough to adjust the Detail columns according to the metrics of the data being displayed? Seems to me I could fix it with Applescript, but damn .. I wish Finder just moved itself around to conform to your window setting..
With Windows Explorer, you can hit Control-Numpad+ and it will automatically do a little jig for you to get all the content revealed in your window
I desperately need this feature in Finder
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Errr, you've been told about option clicking on the zoom button, right?
-mkb
Not to mention how us right handers usually miss the right control and alt (option and command if you will) and on a laptop keyboard they are usually smaller or not there.
What that leaves us is trying to Open a document or print a document. Mac: easy one handed. Right thumb on control and any key can be hit with a finger on that same hand. Windows: impossible one handed. Left hand on control, right hand pecks out o or p.
Maybe I should learn to use the right control key. Maybe I should stop whining and pretend that the author of TFA is smarter than me, but from my view, the mac command key is better. Maybe they were thinking about one handed ease of use back in 1984 by sticking the command key right next to the space bar who knows?
The idea of sovereign posture (absolute full screen) apps is a hangover from smaller screens and should be on the way out. Its relevancy is something tied to past generations of computing, not our current generations.
When you've got screen dimensions past a certain point there are very few tasks that benefit from using the whole screen space. Your example of wanting to maximise your browser window is a perfect example of where there's absolutely no need for the use of the whole screen space. Web pages are like newspapers in that the readability of the text degrades as the width increases. The less width (to a point) the more readable.
The only cases where web browsing benefits from a browser window wider than say 800px is when either the designer has fucked up their job and made the site too wide or when you're viewing an image or diagram or some such, in which case pressing the zoom button will resize the browser window to exactly the necessary dimensions.
Eventually even Microsoft will have to admit that absolute maximising of windows has become irrelevant due to increased screen dimensions and will have to implement an intelligent zoom feature exactly like Apple's. Apple are ahead of the game on this one, not behind.