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mezo

macrumors newbie
May 2, 2006
10
0
I would agree that expose and dashboard need to be improved. it seems like there are too many bugs in the dashboard. but maybe thats just my mac.
 

AvSRoCkCO1067

macrumors 65816
Sep 6, 2005
1,401
0
CO
mezo said:
I would agree that expose and dashboard need to be improved. it seems like there are too many bugs in the dashboard. but maybe thats just my mac.

I understand Dashboard...but how would you improve Expose?
 

flyfish29

macrumors 68020
Feb 4, 2003
2,175
4
New HAMpshire
AvSRoCkCO1067 said:
I understand Dashboard...but how would you improve Expose?
Read my post #25 (before yours!) for some ideas for Expose.:rolleyes:

I would also add that when things such as stickies are "expose'd" that the label says more than just "stickies" on it but shows the first line of the sticky. I use six stickies on my desktop for various info but have problems determining which one is which.
 

supremedesigner

macrumors 65816
Dec 9, 2005
1,070
907
ahunter3 said:
My own list:

1) Ditch spring-loaded folders in favor of PopupFolder functionality (when you drag a file onto a volume or folder it should pop out a menu showing all contents with the folders behaving like a hierarchical menu; drag onto one of them and its contents pops up and so on. Release and in drops the file).

2) Apple should buy DefaultFolder from St. Clair Software and extend it somewhat, to fix the crippled Open/Save/Save As dialog boxes. You should be able to delete, move, rename, get file type & creator code, finder label, finder comments, and previews of any file in the current folder; Command-clicking the foldername should not only let you slide up the hierarchy, you should also get a popup to the side showing the full contents of any folder in the hierarchy, and be able thereby to navigate not only up-hierarchy but to the side and back down a different path in a single click.

3) Return optional legacy AppleTalk networking. The real deal, backwards-compatible to System 6. And fix SMB, get it faster, get it to quit depositing Finderturds (._DS_Store, etc) inside PC volumes unless they can be made invisible to the PC OS. And include optional legacy PC networking (NetBEUI, pre-Active Directory NetBIOS, etc).

4) Give the option of "placing" the Dock in the main menubar as a Dock menu item (a hierarchical menu of course). Also the option of not only hiding the Dock but turning off auto-reveal on mouseover (so you have to specifically invoke the Dock to make it appear). And put a PrefsPane field to change keystroke ?-Tab to something else if desired, or disable it altogether.

5) A "Get Info" tab that's useful. Display permissions in all formats (rwxrwxrwx, 777, "you can read", etc), display size, creator code, type code, file-specific binding, finder comment, label, created & modified dates, "will open with", unix path, Mac path, lock flag, custom icon flag, and any other metadata associated with the file.

6) Fix the Finder window-refresh problem.

7) With the exception of column view, each folder should have a position and a native view; whenever opened, it should manifest itself at that size, shape, and view.

1) You are right about #6! They really need "refresh" button or refresh right away.

2) Also, this is my opinion and sometime it'd be nice to have Finder Tab I know ya'll never thought about this but this is kinda cool though. If you still want to drag n drop, you can drag to the tab and tab auto switch it I know ya'll don't like many Finder windows. Cool huh?

3) About DVD player, well if you accidently quit DVD player and it's not on DOCK (if you don't want to take up dock space). it'd be nice to double click DVD icon on desktop to start movie Pretty cool though!

4) Auto-hide Finder menu? Maybe?

5) More themes! More icons selection!

6) Have Apple to pay us $200.00 to give them our ideas! :D

EDIT: Also, if you drag n drop file to another location, I just wish Finder Window won't disappear after you drop it in.

8) Apple should add more free games, like he said Pinball and solitarie! :D
 

G99

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2006
366
0
khisayruou said:
Path Finder, its everything Finder should be, just to name a few features...tabs, drop stack, built in ftp, and more viewing info for files.
I agree, PathFinder is looking very promising, and I am considering getting it.
I think Apple could learn some things from Pathfinder. That "drop box" thingy, among a few other things looks very useful.
 

Eraserhead

macrumors G4
Nov 3, 2005
10,434
12,250
UK
Two boring but useful ones,

Add the applications folder to the dock (ala the windows start menu), and make it load instantly (by autocreating aliases or something) when you have lots of applications.

Enable the firewall by default,

Most of the other ideas seem pretty good, a movie app would be immense as iTunes's getting too many features.

And of course add Cut and Up options to Finder (especially as Window's is getting rid of up from vista!).
 

j26

macrumors 68000
Mar 30, 2005
1,718
604
Paddyland
1. A drop down list like the Himmel Bar integrated into the OS - then you can get at any app easier.

2. The possibility to have multiple customisable docks that you can change as you need. I don't want all my apps on the dock all the time - it gets harder to find stuff if you have too much on the dock. If I'm working with video or photo I just want those apps. If I'm studying I have a different battery of apps that I want to access, and if I'm just faffing about I want another set of apps. A simple right click to change to the dock I want would be great.

3. A decent version of Spider Solitaire
 

theBB

macrumors 68020
Jan 3, 2006
2,453
3
1) Finder acts up a bit too many times for comfort. (one example: when I go into users folder, every now and then I find two subfolders displayed right on top of each other. I make Finder sort by name, then it looks OK for a while but the problem pops up after a little while.) A more stable Finder is a must.

2) Another Finder request, "cut and paste" ability for files and folders, please, not just drag and drop or copy and paste. That's the one thing I miss from Windows Explorer.

3) Another vote for a solution for "Random order slideshow." This should be the easiest to fix, why does it take so long?

4) Quicktime should include mpeg2 and full screen capability for free. Come on, I just paid thousand of dollars for a new Mac, don't nickel and dime me. Afterall, mpeg2 codec must be there somewhere already if DVDplayer.app exists. This is like an airline charging you 4 bucks for headphones when you just paid $1000 for a trip.

5) Resolution independent GUI. I should not have to squint my eyes or lean forward just because I have a higher quality screen now. If I use 10pt font on a document (let's say in TextEdit), it should be displayed the same size as it would be if printed on paper. Now its size is defined as a certain number of pixels by a certain number pixels, so if you have a high resolution screen, the documents becomes a lot smaller.

6) System sound gets lost after certain programs are played and playing with Audio MIDI controls does not always bring it back. More stability is needed in this respect.

7) While using iLife for a number of hours, I have suffered a major crash last weekend. After years of Solaris, I guess I was expecting more stability from an OS with a UNIX core.
 

XNine

macrumors 68040
some may have already been mentioned:

1. To be able to copy the Text of folder/file names in order to be able to paste in a new document that I can place on CD's/DVD's for backup. So, If I have a Media Folder, it would then list the Audio folder, then all of its contents, then the Picture folder, then its contents, then video, etc. etc.

2. Skins/Themes. I won't install a haxie to do this. Haxie's are processor hogs. I love the menubar, I love the dock (for the most part), just give me themes or the ability to customize every aspect.

3. With the finder, Tabs that are remembered.

4. When I tell the Finder I want all windows that are opened to be opened in LIST view, I want it that way, not for one or two folders. ALL of them. FOREVER.

5. With Safari, the ability to ADD a webpage to the Autofill menu when the Autofill menu doesn't ask me if it wants me to add it.

6. Much better SMB support. I want it native and I want a great app that will do this. In fact, take Captain FTP, add Samba, and make it beautiful.

7. Full fledged media center with Television support. Allow me to use my old Powermac G4 as a Tivo when I buy a New Powermac intel. And allow it to connect to an open source TV program guide for info. It need to exceed the uses of ReplayTV with better implementation than TV.

8. The ability to customize the OPEN WITH contextual item so that all of those funky things in the Adobe suite don't show up.

9. The Dock. Give me what DockExtender had NATIVELY. This was the best app for dock customization ever, but the developer has given up on it.

10. Hot keys. KeyXing was by far the best Hotkey automator ever before the company stopped selling it (which they won't discuss why).

11. MORE automator stuff.
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
ddrueckhammer said:
7. A separate administrator account created by default (to help make the OS a little more secure
I'd much rather the user just be given a choice when creating the administrator account--"Do you want to create another account for daily use?" I don't need or want additional accounts on my computer, and I love that OS X doesn't force me to create extra ones and then keep me from deleting them.
9. An iTunes alarm clock widget that will wake the computer and play a song from iTunes (I know there are ways of achieving this but it could be more elegant)
Check out Alarm Clock by Robbie Hansen. You can't get much more simple than this...just sits up in the menu bar and works perfectly (even wakes the computer from sleep).
10. A TV and DVR app (probably won't happen but I can dream) added to Front-Row
They'd never undertake the development/support issues themselves unless they planned on including TV tuners in Macs. Instead, I'd prefer an extensible Front Row that would allow EyeTV to add an icon to the "circle" for Television--with recordings being integrated into the Video section.
13. The ability to replace text in text-edit, pages etc from the system dictionary/thesaurus and widget (without copy and paste).
You can already. Just enable systemwide spell checking.
16. Virtual surround sound decoder for DVD player (for those with 5.1 speakers but no external receiver)
This isn't an OS X feature--it's a feature for the driver software of third-party sound cards which allow the use of PC 5.1 speakers.
18. Finder preferences, disk utility, airport admin utility, keychain, directory access etc all located in system preferences...(What new user would think to look in the applications/utilities folder for these apps?)
None of these belong in System Preferences--they're all applications or utilities in their own right. I do agree that the Utilities folder should be more prominent.
20. An app for networking...(Again what new user would think to hit command k to connect to a network?)
Networking for what? To connect to a share, you can browse the Finder's Network icon, just like browsing the network in Windows.
23. Perhaps Apple should create there own virus detection/quarantine app (Currently there aren't any viri but thats not to say that there won't be...I don't think Apple should rely on 3rd party companies to ensure our security..)
Keeping track of all the viruses in the world is best done by the big security firms, not by individual manufacturers needlessly duplicating the work. Apple should remain focused on keeping the OS secure, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...
26. Better support for various plug-ins in Safari (there should never be a website Safari can't open)
Safari will never be able to run ActiveX or IE-proprietary features. It's not Apple's fault that Microsoft abuses its market saturation to push bad technologies which it is unwilling to license.

My biggest gripe is the Finder. There's no path bar for direct access to a location without a thousand clicks, nor is there an easy way to see where you are in the file system (for example WHICH library folder you're in). The SMB shares are grossly mismanaged (and I hate the icon) and don't fail/time-out gracefully. Tabs would be immensely helpful instead of having to Exposé my way around five different windows all the time. A drag-and-drop shelf would be a great alternative to the "cut and paste" dilemma, along with a GUI/keyboard shortcut version of the move command to round it out. Image folders should be handled more like Windows (gasp!), and it'd be nice to be able to drag from iTunes to copy music files instead of having to muck around in the multi-tiered Music folders to get to the actual files, though that's not strictly Finder's fault.
 

ddrueckhammer

macrumors 65816
Aug 8, 2004
1,181
0
America's Wang
matticus008 said:
I'd much rather the user just be given a choice when creating the administrator account--"Do you want to create another account for daily use?" I don't need or want additional accounts on my computer, and I love that OS X doesn't force me to create extra ones and then keep me from deleting them.

I agree with you 100%, a choice would be a better option.

matticus008 said:
Check out Alarm Clock by Robbie Hansen. You can't get much more simple than this...just sits up in the menu bar and works perfectly (even wakes the computer from sleep).

I'll check it out when I get my new Mac (I am in the middle of trading up from my 12" Powerbook). It looks good so far but it would be a simple addition to iTunes.

matticus008 said:
They'd never undertake the development/support issues themselves unless they planned on including TV tuners in Macs. Instead, I'd prefer an extensible Front Row that would allow EyeTV to add an icon to the "circle" for Television--with recordings being integrated into the Video section.

Thats why I said I wish. I'm sure creating a DVR is against Apples longterm strategy as it would alienate the studios who will provide content for the iTMS but it would still be cool.


matticus008 said:
You can already. Just enable systemwide spell checking.

I'll check it out but I'm talking about being able to use the system wide dictionary/thesaurus to replace words not the spell checker.

matticus008 said:
This isn't an OS X feature--it's a feature for the driver software of third-party sound cards which allow the use of PC 5.1 speakers.

Partly, but DVD player still has to support it I think.

matticus008 said:
None of these belong in System Preferences--they're all applications or utilities in their own right. I do agree that the Utilities folder should be more prominent.

You may be right but the average switcher who wants to do disk maintanence wouldn't think to look in applications/utilities/disk utility to find this app. Maybe there should be a maintenance preferences pane for these apps and they can be located in system preferences.

matticus008 said:
Networking for what? To connect to a share, you can browse the Finder's Network icon, just like browsing the network in Windows.

Samba networking in its current incarnation is horrible. This is mainly Microsoft's fault but Apple bears some responsibility to make it work. Its hard to get shares to mount much less browse them without crashing finder. command-k to connect to a share isn't obvious for new switchers. The networking preference pane should have the connect to share settings and options in my opinion but this could be placed in a new app in the utilities folder.

matticus008 said:
Keeping track of all the viruses in the world is best done by the big security firms, not by individual manufacturers needlessly duplicating the work. Apple should remain focused on keeping the OS secure, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...

I agree but most of the Virus software for Mac is buggy at best. There was another thread this week complaining about how buggy all the virus checkers are. Maybe Apple should start a separate company or invest in one of the third-party security companies to ensure a bug free virus checker is always available just in case.

matticus008 said:
Safari will never be able to run ActiveX or IE-proprietary features. It's not Apple's fault that Microsoft abuses its market saturation to push bad technologies which it is unwilling to license.

Possibly, but in my opinion Apple doesn't do enough to pre-package Safari or Quicktime with the plugins and drivers that are needed for every day use. I don't expect Microsoft to license Active X or other plugins to Apple (although they do own like 30% of Apple I read)
 

solvs

macrumors 603
Jun 25, 2002
5,684
1
LaLaLand, CA
ddrueckhammer said:
(although they do own like 30% of Apple I read)
You read wrong. They invested some money when Steve came back in '97 and agreed to continue with Office to sway some complaints about monopoly abuses and rather than deal with Apple's lawsuits alleging they stole... well, everything, from Apple (mostly media stuff though). They sold their stock years later, at a profit I might add, and it was nonvoting anyway.

I'd like a new Finder too, with some features of Explorer, but not as complicated as that or PathFinder.
 

Superdrive

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2003
772
56
Dallas, Tx
matticus008 said:
[snip]My biggest gripe is the Finder. There's no path bar for direct access to a location without a thousand clicks[/snip]

Apple+Shift+G=attached (Edit: Apparently Vbulletin doesn't care for my symbols)
 

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shadowmoses

macrumors 68000
Mar 6, 2005
1,821
0
-Tabs in iTunes would be nice.
-Ability to switch off dashboard without having to download 3rd party app.
-Quicktime support for all video formats and full screen without pro version.
-Unified look (think Uno)

Thats all I can think of, but i'm sure Steve will surprise us with some amazing stuff that will blow us away...

SHadoW
 

gauchogolfer

macrumors 603
Jan 28, 2005
5,551
5
American Riviera
Eraserhead said:
And of course add Cut and Up options to Finder (especially as Window's is getting rid of up from vista!).

You do know that you can navigate in Finder folders via Cmd+up/down arrow in order to 'drill' up or down in the hierarchy, right? This is a pretty useful shortcut, if not. Did you mean something else?
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
Superdrive said:
Apple+Shift+G
Yes, but that's never been good enough--it's essentially the equivalent of a box to run the "ls" command visually. A user shouldn't have to press a keyboard shortcut every time they want to change to a different folder in a file browsing application. I want a path bar directly built into finder that's always present and does autocompleting of folder names. I also want it to drop down and show the hierarchy (or show it some other way, like a breadcrumb strip).

ddrueckhammer said:
I'll check it out but I'm talking about being able to use the system wide dictionary/thesaurus to replace words not the spell checker.
Oh, I see what you mean. I think that all the word processors, etc have thesauruses built in, with the exception of Textpad, so it might just be not worth the effort.

Partly, but DVD player still has to support it I think.
Nope, that's the beauty of modern OS design. DVD Player would just pass the song right into the Audio subsystem, where the "surround" would be virtualized at the sound card and then sent through the output ports.


You may be right but the average switcher who wants to do disk maintanence wouldn't think to look in applications/utilities/disk utility to find this app.
I think that the Utilities folder is a pretty obvious place to start--in Windows most of these apps are located under Programs\Accessories\System Tools, so there shouldn't be that much confusion. But like I said, I think the utilities folder should be more prominent--that's another thing. You should be able to have custom views in Finder that allow folders to be sorted first, and the Utilities folder should have some sort of icon. Applications that are utilities should, furthermore, install by default to the Utilities folder. Things that are not "preferences" and/or configuration options shouldn't be in System Preferences at all.


Samba networking in its current incarnation is horrible. This is mainly Microsoft's fault but Apple bears some responsibility to make it work. Its hard to get shares to mount much less browse them without crashing finder. command-k to connect to a share isn't obvious for new switchers.
You should try Samba in Linux--the OS X implementation is far more stable and easy to use, but I agree it still needs some work. The command-K option isn't necessary--you can browse your network and connect to the share without having to know the command, or you can use the "Go" menu in Finder, which is pretty obvious. No keyboard shortcut is immediately obvious, which is why they should always have menu counterparts.


Possibly, but in my opinion Apple doesn't do enough to pre-package Safari or Quicktime with the plugins and drivers that are needed for every day use.
I'm not sure what you mean here. What doesn't Safari come with that it should? Internet Explorer doesn't even come with Flash or Java installed--plugins are by definition optional and as long as there's an easy way to install them, I think they've done their job.
 

Eraserhead

macrumors G4
Nov 3, 2005
10,434
12,250
UK
gauchogolfer said:
You do know that you can navigate in Finder folders via Cmd+up/down arrow in order to 'drill' up or down in the hierarchy, right? This is a pretty useful shortcut, if not. Did you mean something else?
Yeah I knew about Cmd-Up, Cmd-Down is new to me though...:cool:

What I meant was having an icon in the toolbar would be good for newer users (also it'd be good if you could click and drag files over it to go back up a directory, i hate it when you accidently go too far and then have to start again...:(
 

Eraserhead

macrumors G4
Nov 3, 2005
10,434
12,250
UK
matticus008 said:
I'm not sure what you mean here. What doesn't Safari come with that it should? Internet Explorer doesn't even come with Flash or Java installed--plugins are by definition optional and as long as there's an easy way to install them, I think they've done their job.

Based on Google's recent whining about IE 7 not making Google the default engine in IE 7 it should be much easier to change search engines in Safari (as I realised today that you cannot).

In Quicktime, OS X should also come with Div X and Flip 4 Mac installed by default, so you can play more movie formats Out-the-Box.
 
A few things that spring to mind

A Windows-E type keyboard shortcut to Finder from anywhere (or what is the existing one?)

Folder drag-and-drop to either offer a 'merge' option or at the very least move the replaced folder to the Trash NOT permanently delete it. I would also second Cut-and-Paste or the "shelf" idea mentioned earlier.

I would second the path requirements in Finder, in particular I would like an "Open Terminal Here" option (with an ssh option for files on servers) as well as auto completion and path display. And a check box for enabling all of the unix hierarchy to be visible / invisible.

The ability to sort files by type, date etc. in column view. This is a big annoyance - maybe it is possible already? Anyone?

Better integration with network sharing, including mounting of NFS exports. It seems daft that the easiest way of accessing files on a Linux server is through Samba. Also much more flexibility in sharing folders over a network, along the lines of Windows Right-Click -> Sharing and Security option.

Several years into using OS X on a daily basis, I still can't consistently drag and drop accurately, in particular when a folder is highlighted in both the left and right panes of Finder, it seems to be almost random which one it ends up in. Same with New Folder. Both are just really frustrating.

Customisation of "Open With" - it annoys me that a PNG (for example) shows me around 30 options. I only ever use 3 or 4 of them and something like the Windows hiding rarely / never used options or at least sorting by frequency selected would be great.

Something I want, but haven't investigated so might exist, is a really simple preview plug-in. I work with lots of (proprietary) file types, often images, for which libraries already exist. It would be great to have a simple way integrating this (i.e. a single pointer to a function returning an image) to allow Finder to draw previews.
 

demallien

macrumors regular
Oct 13, 2005
137
0
matticus008 said:
They'd never undertake the development/support issues themselves unless they planned on including TV tuners in Macs. Instead, I'd prefer an extensible Front Row that would allow EyeTV to add an icon to the "circle" for Television--with recordings being integrated into the Video section.

Yup, that's what I've been thinking too. A nice plug-in format so that we could stick in any media type that we can come up with. Games spring to mind as being something that I'd like to be able to launch from the couch. I'm thinking bluetooth joypad :)
 

maverick808

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2004
1,142
150
Scotland
matticus008 said:
I also want it to drop down and show the hierarchy (or show it some other way, like a breadcrumb strip).

Command+click on the title of a Finder window and it shows you the hierarchy.

I agree that it would be nice to have a path input bar though. Although I use it all the time Command+Shift+G is a little awkward and it doesn't auto-complete which is annoying.
 

matticus008

macrumors 68040
Jan 16, 2005
3,330
1
Bay Area, CA
maverick808 said:
Command+click on the title of a Finder window and it shows you the hierarchy.

I agree that it would be nice to have a path input bar though. Although I use it all the time Command+Shift+G is a little awkward and it doesn't auto-complete which is annoying.
There is a "path" button as well--but you can't manipulate it, and it's not particularly intuitive that every row is a folder lower. For a file manager, Finder is pretty inadequate. You should be able to have, say, a breadcrumb bar that works with drag and drop, and on hover opens the contents in the main finder window, in case you want to move a file to a peer folder.

Without Path Finder, I'd be pretty irritated all the time. "Finder" unfortunately means "find another way to get things done because I won't help you."
 

ahunter3

macrumors 6502
Oct 15, 2003
377
5
Onizuka said:
1. To be able to copy the Text of folder/file names in order to be able to paste in a new document that I can place on CD's/DVD's for backup. So, If I have a Media Folder, it would then list the Audio folder, then all of its contents, then the Picture folder, then its contents, then video, etc. etc.

You can. Select Finder items, Copy (⌘-C), go to document, ⌘-V.


2. Skins/Themes. I won't install a haxie to do this. Haxie's are processor hogs. I love the menubar, I love the dock (for the most part), just give me themes or the ability to customize every aspect.

FWIW, you can use Duality 4 instead of ShapeShifter. Duality actually edits the little TIFF resources rather than loading code at bootup time which redirects the "load" instruction to load resources from the Theme files. So it's riskier when you run it but after it runs you're just loading and using plain-vanilla system resources (the TIFFs of which have been edited), not haxies. Do a reliable bootable backup, then run Duality and install the theme you want, then you're all set. (Yeah, I know, not the same as an official Apple-approved theme manager. And not a solution if you want to switch from one theme to another fairly often, or have other users on your computer who don't want a modified appearance, since Duality mods will affect all users of the OS).


4. When I tell the Finder I want all windows that are opened to be opened in LIST view, I want it that way, not for one or two folders. ALL of them. FOREVER.

Amen. I want every folder not specifically set by me to open in a different view to open in list view. List view should be the universal default, not bloody $^&#@ Icon view. I've only been saying that for 15 years.


Oh, another one from me: I want the same ease and granularity of file and folder sharing that I had under System 7, MacOS 8, MacOS 9. I do not want to be restricted to either sharing only a rigidly specific set of folders or sharing up my whole universe (depending on whether the connecting account is an admin account or not). If I want to share only /Library/WebServer/Documents, and I want to share it on an editable basis, I should be able to do that without jumping through serious hoops. And I should not have to create an entire damn account (complete with folders in /Users) just to authorize someone to connect to my computer with username & password! :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
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