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How the Mac OS X Finder could be improved
- Thread starter chameeeleon
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I must admit that for anything more than casual file management, I usually end up in a terminal window. I mean, 'cd path; mv file ..' is just easier, for me, especially with path completion in bash. Just the old school in me, I guess.chameeeleon said:
chameeeleon said:
Looking at the screenshots of the Finder windows in the Spotlight Technology Preview PDF, it looks like there is a path bar when looking at search results. Whether you can use the items on the path bar as a navigation aid, or as drop targets for files is anybody's guess at the moment.
I've mentioned this before, but here's still something I'd like to see. If you have a Aqua-style Finder window and you drag files to the edge of the window and hover for a bit, the Finder sidebar should pop out in a drawer for you to drop items into, and then close away automatically (a bit like the Mail drawer).
Neil.
a.k.a. Arnel
Ohhhh, yes good call! The music store path bar is a perfect design for one in the Finder.
And judging from page 6 #9 in the PDF, there is a nice path bar implemented in search results in the Tiger finder. I only hope it can be kept there while browsing.
And judging from page 6 #9 in the PDF, there is a nice path bar implemented in search results in the Tiger finder. I only hope it can be kept there while browsing.
chameeeleon said:
Sorry to bust your bubble, but I have Tiger, and no - the bar does not stay, and you cannot use it for file organization - it's only purpose is to tell the Finder where to search.
The slideshow functionality you mentioned is now present though - just select the images you want in the show, then right-click one of them and click "Slideshow".
Here's a couple screenshots:
Screenshot 1, All Slides View
Screenshot 2, Single Slide View
Here's a couple screenshots:
Screenshot 1, All Slides View
Screenshot 2, Single Slide View
hmmm... I wonder
Would that second picture you posted happen to be the new Aqua Tiger desktop????
Would that second picture you posted happen to be the new Aqua Tiger desktop????
anyone else here ever get the wrong icon show up for some files in the finder? sometimes I get a random picture from my hard drive show up as the icon for an app.
nightdweller25 said:Would that second picture you posted happen to be the new Aqua Tiger desktop????
Hehe, yup, that's the Graphite version. There's 28 new desktop pics in Tiger, total. I'll let you guys wait for the surprise when Tiger's released to see them, unless you really wanna see em that bad
In your original thread, you asked for a way to give Apple feedback. You don't have to wait till 10.5 for that. It already exists on the web.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
and with a free online developer account you can submit bug reports here:
http://bugreporter.apple.com/
Which among other things asks for feature improvements.
While it is nice to bring discussion here to Macrumors. To make your suggestions really carry weight, please post at the above links. The more people who request it, the better a chance that Apple will listen.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
and with a free online developer account you can submit bug reports here:
http://bugreporter.apple.com/
Which among other things asks for feature improvements.
While it is nice to bring discussion here to Macrumors. To make your suggestions really carry weight, please post at the above links. The more people who request it, the better a chance that Apple will listen.
YES!!!!
PLEASE SHOW EM TO ME!!!!! I really do wanna se em that bad!
UPDATE: hehe, sorry for the over excited post, but please show them to us, plz!
PLEASE SHOW EM TO ME!!!!! I really do wanna se em that bad!
UPDATE: hehe, sorry for the over excited post, but please show them to us, plz!
nightdweller25 said:PLEASE SHOW EM TO ME!!!!! I really do wanna se em that bad!
UPDATE: hehe, sorry for the over excited post, but please show them to us, plz!
Hehe, ok, but if the bandwidth meter starts going nuts I'm taking em down
http://iindigo3d.com/tigerdesks.zip (18 MB)
chameeeleon said:
I totally agree with most of the above, it's exactly what i wanted to write when i saw the thread title.
And with the slideshow, you could use the same the same one as the slideshow options in tiger's new mail and iPhoto. I'd really like a slideshow feature
iindigo said:
Sweet, that's exactly how I would have wanted it - simple but amazingly effective! I figured they wouldn't go to all the trouble to do the cool Mail slideshows (especially that picture Exposé effect) without adding it to the Finder as well, and when I saw a blue "play" button in Spotlight search results with pictures, I figured the next logical step would be putting the slideshow in the Finder too.
Others have argued that this is what iPhoto is for, and let it be said that I love and use iPhoto and its slideshows all the time. But there are times when friends have just sent me a gazillion photos in a zip folder (or I've downloaded things like your Tiger desktops) that I'm not sure I even want to keep, and I don't want to import them into iPhoto and have to pick music, a transition, etc. when I only want like 2 of them - I want a fast option to thin through them. I used to use Preview, but this slideshow will prove helpful.
whenever i set a certain folder to display as icons, at a certain size and organize by name.... sometimes there settings get messed up and i have to do it over and over again... that bugs me... but other then that is amazing
RAS admin said:
This has been a frequent bug for me since Panther came out.
Another annoying thing for me is my view settings getting trashed. It seems like a lot of my folder views get scrambled at random. Also, setting a view and having to close the window in order for it to save (This is what I've heard as the "correct" way to save folder views.) is a PITA.
In summary, icon/application association bugs and view settings need to be fixed.
Apple Hobo said:
AMEN brother!
Also, having desktop file/icon positions saved (or at least neatly rearranged) after changing resolutions would be nice. I'm sick and tired of having to "Clean up" or "Arrange by File Name" every time I disconnect my laptop from my LCD monitor.
This bug is indicative of something wrong with your DS_Store and cache files. It has been documented and the solution is repair your directory properly ( http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html explains how), backup your data, and potentially move it off to another hard drive.Apple Hobo said:
I suggest if you are having this bug, to post to the Mac OS X bulletin board under Panther Usage at http://discussions.info.apple.com/ There have been several good solutions documented that may not be as drastic. But this is not a thread to cover this bug. It is a series of events that cause this bug, and not the operating system itself.
I was one of the people bitching in the other thread about the Finder, so here's some of the issues I have with it.
My biggest complaints with the Finder aren't exact complaints - it is the complaint that, overall, the Finder feels very under-developed and lacking in options. Column view, for example, is still pretty bad. First of all, columns don't even stay sized properly between restarts or log-outs - of course, this is just one example of the sloppyness of the Finder in this kind of way, but it is still something that should have been fixed by now. I use column view most of the time, but for a lot of things you need / want to do in the Finder, you can't do them in column view. Or, it takes far more work getting it done in column view than it should.
Here's a Finder idea example I made up a while ago - it is a bit out of date, but still works for the most part. (I should probably some time update it a bit.)
Finder idea
First and foremost, before anybody says anything, everything I've encorporated would be optional through Finder settings. If you wanted, you could have the Finder exactly like it is now.
The first thing you'll probably notice is the huge icon and name for the current folder that you are viewing. This would be for people who are newer to Mac OSX, and would be of most benefit in icon or list view, where it might not be instantly understandable what folder you are currently in.
Sidebar sets. Have the ability to switch between what items are currently listed in the Finder sidebar. For example, if you're working on a new website design, you could have a set with links to all of the folders containing the files needed for that new site. (You would obviously be able to put better labels on it than just cats and bunnies and turtles. *heh*) You could also use the "Launch / Open in tabs" in a way similar to Safari, where all of the items there would then be opened in new tabs in the Finder window.
Better file info tags. By far, this is my biggest want. Put info labels on anything that they can go on. In the sidebar, have all drives have info such as how much room is free. Use file into to provide a lot of useful info in column view, so that I don't have to click on files on by one just to find out how big they are. (I know, I could switch to list view... but I shouldn't have to.)
Tabs. I know, some people don't understand why you might want tabs in the Finder. Those people don't have to use them. Other say that things like the sidebar can do the same thing, but it can't. Sometimes you need to compare different folders to see the similarities and differences between them. (That, by the way, is another option I'd love to see... the ability to directly compare two folders, sync them, things like that.)
Current path. I'm not sure that I'd use it a lot, but some people would like it, so include it. I'd actually like to update this to use the iTunes path, the way somebody else in this thread was talking about.
Column View improvements:
As I said before, file info.
Put labels at the top for what each folder is, just to make things clearer for some users.
Actual, real means for sorting items in column view beyond alphabetically. Why not allow for sorting by type, even if it is just files and folders? Even better, from there, allow sorting of the items under Files by file type if so desired. Or, allow sorting of all items by size. (And then use file info to show the size for each item.)
Image previewing. When using column view, I can either spend forever clicking on each image file to find the image I'm looking for, or I have to switch to icon view and then switch back. Have, if the user desires, the images preview themselves directly in the column view.
Finally, for now - and this may indeed be a new feature come Spotlight - I want the ability to directly filter what files are in a window with the search box. For example, I have a folder with 10,000 items - I type ".jpg" in the search box, and right there directly in the window, without switching to a new view, it goes to only showing files that include that. (As I said, just in the same way the iTunes works.)
My biggest complaints with the Finder aren't exact complaints - it is the complaint that, overall, the Finder feels very under-developed and lacking in options. Column view, for example, is still pretty bad. First of all, columns don't even stay sized properly between restarts or log-outs - of course, this is just one example of the sloppyness of the Finder in this kind of way, but it is still something that should have been fixed by now. I use column view most of the time, but for a lot of things you need / want to do in the Finder, you can't do them in column view. Or, it takes far more work getting it done in column view than it should.
Here's a Finder idea example I made up a while ago - it is a bit out of date, but still works for the most part. (I should probably some time update it a bit.)
Finder idea
First and foremost, before anybody says anything, everything I've encorporated would be optional through Finder settings. If you wanted, you could have the Finder exactly like it is now.
The first thing you'll probably notice is the huge icon and name for the current folder that you are viewing. This would be for people who are newer to Mac OSX, and would be of most benefit in icon or list view, where it might not be instantly understandable what folder you are currently in.
Sidebar sets. Have the ability to switch between what items are currently listed in the Finder sidebar. For example, if you're working on a new website design, you could have a set with links to all of the folders containing the files needed for that new site. (You would obviously be able to put better labels on it than just cats and bunnies and turtles. *heh*) You could also use the "Launch / Open in tabs" in a way similar to Safari, where all of the items there would then be opened in new tabs in the Finder window.
Better file info tags. By far, this is my biggest want. Put info labels on anything that they can go on. In the sidebar, have all drives have info such as how much room is free. Use file into to provide a lot of useful info in column view, so that I don't have to click on files on by one just to find out how big they are. (I know, I could switch to list view... but I shouldn't have to.)
Tabs. I know, some people don't understand why you might want tabs in the Finder. Those people don't have to use them. Other say that things like the sidebar can do the same thing, but it can't. Sometimes you need to compare different folders to see the similarities and differences between them. (That, by the way, is another option I'd love to see... the ability to directly compare two folders, sync them, things like that.)
Current path. I'm not sure that I'd use it a lot, but some people would like it, so include it. I'd actually like to update this to use the iTunes path, the way somebody else in this thread was talking about.
Column View improvements:
As I said before, file info.
Put labels at the top for what each folder is, just to make things clearer for some users.
Actual, real means for sorting items in column view beyond alphabetically. Why not allow for sorting by type, even if it is just files and folders? Even better, from there, allow sorting of the items under Files by file type if so desired. Or, allow sorting of all items by size. (And then use file info to show the size for each item.)
Image previewing. When using column view, I can either spend forever clicking on each image file to find the image I'm looking for, or I have to switch to icon view and then switch back. Have, if the user desires, the images preview themselves directly in the column view.
Finally, for now - and this may indeed be a new feature come Spotlight - I want the ability to directly filter what files are in a window with the search box. For example, I have a folder with 10,000 items - I type ".jpg" in the search box, and right there directly in the window, without switching to a new view, it goes to only showing files that include that. (As I said, just in the same way the iTunes works.)
Wow. What a mockup. All around great ideas. Love the tab par and path - they look natural in the window. The Sidebar "Sets" (animals in yours, lol) I'd been thinking about as the ability to have like a folder of Sidebar items, with the little grey expand arrow, but your way is more elegant. The sort by type in the columns is very elegant. Pretty nice work.
The one that annoys me is when I double-click a folder in a metal-style window - it always always open up that folder in another metal window, regardless of whether I've set it to an aqua-style window previously. The size and position is correct, just the wrong style. Of course, if you click the widget to switch it back to aqua, it changes its size to be the window minus the sidebar, and saves that as its new size. Slowly but surely, all your window settings get thinner and thinner. Grrrr.Apple Hobo said:
Neil.
a.k.a. Arnel