Old Exposé in Snow Leopard

[darbyclash34]

I too was a much bigger fan of the old Expose. Couldn't we still get the window name underneath the previous method of organization?

 

[TheSpaz]

I don't like using the keyboard. I have hotcorners for expose, which made the workflow very smooth. It's now very clunky

Yeah, cause moving your mouse all the way to a corner of the screen is more productive than just pressing a button that your hand is probably already on.

Hot corners are dumb. You gotta do more work by moving your mouse to the corner of the screen, then moving it back to the window you want to click on... instead of just keeping your cursor where it is.

Do you click menus for everything too? If so, you're wasting a lot of time mousing and clicking.

 

[CrzyCanuck72]

Yeah, cause moving your mouse all the way to a corner of the screen is more productive than just pressing a button that your hand is probably already on.

Hot corners are dumb. You gotta do more work by moving your mouse to the corner of the screen, then moving it back to the window you want to click on... instead of just keeping your cursor where it is.

Do you click menus for everything too? If so, you're wasting a lot of time mousing and clicking.

My left hand always rests on my trackpad. All it takes is a flick of my finger on the trackpad to invoke a hotcorner. Much much easier than a key combo.

 

[iShater]

Yeah, cause moving your mouse all the way to a corner of the screen is more productive than just pressing a button that your hand is probably already on.

Hot corners are dumb. You gotta do more work by moving your mouse to the corner of the screen, then moving it back to the window you want to click on... instead of just keeping your cursor where it is.

Do you click menus for everything too? If so, you're wasting a lot of time mousing and clicking.

To each their own amigo. There are keyboard people and mouse people.

I haven't gotten SL yet, but if the windows are no longer relative to their size outside expose, I can imagine it being a pita.

Are their screen shots of the "new way"?

 

[Molnies]

Are their screen shots of the "new way"?

A quick Google brought up this image (too lazy to take my own). The two smaller windows at the bottom are the minimized windows you can see in the dock.

 

[iShater]

A quick Google brought up this image (too lazy to take my own). The two smaller windows at the bottom are the minimized windows you can see in the dock.

Very interesting. Does look very clean, but I can see how having the option of how it arranges stuff is needed.

I myself use the size of the windows to pick out the item I want in many cases.

 

[TheSpaz]

My left hand always rests on my trackpad. All it takes is a flick of my finger on the trackpad to invoke a hotcorner. Much much easier than a key combo.

Umm, if you have a trackpad, then why not use a four-finger swipe to invoke Exposé. Seems much more suited to you.

I try to use my mouse as little as possible and I hardly ever use menus.

 

[bengtc]

Umm, if you have a trackpad, then why not use a four-finger swipe to invoke Exposé. Seems much more suited to you.

I try to use my mouse as little as possible and I hardly ever use menus.

Different strokes for different folks....no need to call something dumb when its personal preference and not affecting you in any way.

 

[bengtc]

using hot corners makes it easier to drag and drop items using only 1 hand.

 

[Cougarcat]

wow I'm actually surprised by this thread, which reminds me that I shouldn't be anymore... anyway, I personally love the new Exposé, for me it's the best new "visible" feature in SL. The only thing I don't like the the ugly blue outline, but other than that I couldn't be happier.

Same here. What's funny about that blue outline is that it's the same one that the Safari beta had for Top Sites. It's like they just plain forgot to update Exposé with the nicer one that Safari uses now.

 

[TheSpaz]

Different strokes for different folks....no need to call something dumb when its personal preference and not affecting you in any way.

Different "keystrokes" for different folks .

using hot corners makes it easier to drag and drop items using only 1 hand.

...And how, exactly, is that different than just dragging the file onto the app icon and activating Exposé that way?

 

[beg_ne]

I can't agree that the old Exposé is better at all, Snow Leopard's version is much much better.

If you're having trouble finding a window, I would suggest looking directly below the window, where the title is displayed at all times.

If you are unable to read some content on a window because it's too small then use the "Quicklook" feature by pressing the spacebar while over the window which will make it full size again. You can navigate between these Quicklook'ed windows by using your cursor keys.

 

[bengtc]

I can't agree that the old Exposé is better at all, Snow Leopard's version is much much better.

If you're having trouble finding a window, I would suggest looking directly below the window, where the title is displayed at all times.

If you are unable to read some content on a window because it's too small then use the "Quicklook" feature by pressing the spacebar while over the window which will make it full size again. You can navigate between these Quicklook'ed windows by using your cursor keys.

Different "keystrokes" for different folks .



...And how, exactly, is that different than just dragging the file onto the app icon and activating Exposé that way?

When I have alot of windows open and want to drop a file in a folder on the desktop, at least for me its easier that way.

 

[TheSpaz]

When I have alot of windows open and want to drop a file in a folder on the desktop, at least for me its easier that way.

So you have a corner setup to show the desktop? Good idea. I didn't know that's what you meant. I thought you were using a hot corner to activate normal Exposé.

 

[kolax]

Cmd ` doesn't work very well. You still have to read the title and parts of the code to quickly glimpse which window you're on. And if you have a lot of windows open, you're screwed. My workflow works well in Windows since the window is always in the same place in the taskbar. The new expose is literally a taskbar replacement, ie it places the title underneath the thumbnail window. It's always in the same spot if you use application sort. So you don't even need to find your window, just click that area.

Doesn't make sense? my point is your complaining about a pointless feature that wasn't really a huge boost for Expose. Windows were everywhere, and you had to scrub through them to find out which window you wanted. Before you had to learn how to scan quickly to find your window. Now, you simply need muscle memory as windows don't change position as much, their titles are neatly outlined underneath them, and it's a much better use of the space compared to the original Expose (I believe I made a thread about this issue)

Also, expose in spaces is now amazingly useful compared to previous implementation. I agree that it is a small annoyance that a 1280x800 window takes the same amount of space as a 400x200 window. But it really is a minor annoyance.

I think we confused each other. I thought you were liking the fact that there was no window scaling. That is my main annoyance with Snow Leopard's Expose. Heck, I might even like it if the windows were scaled.

For something like having one Safari window and a file copy window, it just seems really out of place. The old Expose would have put these side by side rather than one tiny one at the top and one at the bottom.

Also, note how far spaced out they are - I have to move my cursor much more.

 

[darbyclash34]

Agreed, I have no problem with organizing the windows in a neater fashion but please scale the windows! If I'm working in pro tools and want to switch using expose between my mix and edit windows, it's distracting to now have any plugin I may have had open be the same size as my mixer! I really doubt apples going to change it back, so I guess we all better get used to reading those labels.

 

[akadmon]

I find that I hardly ever use Exposé (mostly to reveal the desktop). My preferred way of navigating through open windows is via CMD+TAB.

 

[holden57]

Maybe someone will find some way to get the old one back, but to keep some of the nice changes at the same time.

 

[arashkeshmirian]

Agreed!

Just in case you missed it... you can tell the OS X team how you feel about exposé here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

 

[zwaldowski]

Just in case you missed it... you can tell the OS X team how you feel about exposé here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

I already sent a near-essay to them about it. In mine, I suggested (I don't see why they can't) add an option to switch between the grid and "shuffle" views. The Leopard one seems to take a lot of logic and computer magic, and it feels so much cleaner to me. IMO.

 

[iLunar]

I'd love a combination of both. I like the new details added to Snow Leopard (space bar preview, highlight, words underneath, dock view) but I loved Leopard's un-grid like view.

 

[lordthistle]

The grid layout of the new Expose' is a pity also for me. The size was the main visual cue I used to locate a window. Now, Safari windows become smaller than the Downloads one... I hope they will introduce an option to get the old behaviour back (I have already sent feedback both on their website and on ADC). The new Expose' looks like a Microsoft reimplementation of the old Tiger/Leopard Expose.

-- thistle

 

[MasConejos]

I also prefer the older relative sizes/shuffle placement of windows, and would like an option to choose between the two modes of operation. While I like the big titles and showing minimized windows, I find I have a minor pause every time I activate expose while I attempt to locate where my target window has moved.

One of the key ways a person identifies items in a set is by shape/size and color. In expose's case there is no control over color, but homogenizing the size of each window makes it more difficult to discern between items for a significant portion of the user base (that is not to say everyone, or even necessarily a majority, but a non-trivial number).

Additionally, when rearranging a set, reacquiring an item will take proportionally less time the closer that items remains to it's original position. By essentially randomly placing each item in a grid it is necessary to scan on average 50% of the windows (start in the top left and work your way across) before finding the target window. Under the old expose, a search would start in the window's old position and progressively expand, generally requiring one to scan far less than 50% of the total window count.

If you like the new behavior, I am happy for you, but for those of us that do not like the new organization (homogenized grid vs relative shuffle), an option to choose the behavior would be most welcome.

 

[holden57]

If you like the new behavior, I am happy for you, but for those of us that do not like the new organization (homogenized grid vs relative shuffle), an option to choose the behavior would be most welcome.

Yes to me the new Expose seems almost like a revert back to the way Vista tried to copy Expose.

 

[iLeo]

I'd pay another $29 to get the old one back!

Really, it was a great utility feature, now became a nice "show off" feature.

I'll drop a feedback to apple right away.