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Two things that I (gasp!) miss from Windows

L

lom8104

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2005
110
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I converted over from windows several months ago I simply cannot believe how much better OS X is! (not to mention the hardware, which is much superior to my Dell) I described it to a longtime friend who was a mac user as waking up from a bad dream.

.....but there are two things that I miss about windows that I cannot seem to do in OS X. The first has to do with burning CDs/DVDs: Why is OS X compelled to copy everything i plan to burn onto a disc?? From burning things in the finder to using Backup the first step is to always make a duplicate of it. Windows on the other hand would setup a "virtual" (for lack of a better word) directory and would burn directly to the disc from the original location at go. With DVDs some times i don't have enough space to duplicate the data and regardless, it takes a lot of time!

My second issue is with the finder. I liked how windows would place folders first then followed by files when sorted by kind. OS X feesls compelled to put folders in the 'f' position rather than at the top or bottom.

I know there are lots of mac zealots out there....any of you wish to solve these two issues so that I can rid myself of any attachment I have with windows??? :eek:
 
Phat_Pat said:
As for the window thingy i'm kinda unclear on what you mean. :confused:
Click to expand...
Like he said - Windows shows folders first, files next, regardless of view options.

This isn't easily fixed. You can view by size, or type, but these compromise the viewing of files. In fact, this isn't fixed at all, you'll probably just have to get used to it :eek:

And Toast is good. You'll need it sooner or later, so why not make it sooner... Finder's burning capability sucks.
 
when you sort by Kind it lists folders at the top, followed by files, although there are things that maybe be sorted above folders, such as .dmg files...

and has Phat_Pat said, Toast is a great app for burning
 
Wow that was quick....like twenty minutes to get answers to both my question! :eek:

Thanks! Y'all rule!
 
lom8104 said:
My second issue is with the finder. I liked how windows would place folders first then followed by files when sorted by kind. OS X feesls compelled to put folders in the 'f' position rather than at the top or bottom.
Click to expand...

Funny, that's one of the things I've /always/ hated about Windows. As someone who works mainly in Unix/Unix-type environments (I code using cygwin on my PC) I'm used to "ls" listing all files/folders alphabetically. The Windows way just doesn't feel right to me. I'm capable of distinguishing folders from files from the icon.

Another reason for me to switch.
 
I kinda like the way OS X organizes files, I just wish it was easier to arrange them and keep them arranged. I agree with the Toast thing. Burning with the Finder is fine, but Toast is so much better and well worth the price.

The only thing I don't like is the way the Trash is. With Windows, you can restore something to it's original location if you accidently delete something and you can delete things from the Recycle Bin. With OS X, it seems like once you delete something, you'd have to manually move it back to it's original location. And to delete it from the Trash, you have to empty the whole thing. Sometimes I'm not sure if I want to rid of something permanently yet, and would like to be able to get rid of everything else in the Trash.
 
You can also just do the old trick of putting a space before all folder titles and it puts those at the top of every finder window. You can even add two spaces to ones to show up before other folders if you want. I happen to like the folders all being mixed in, but now that I think of it, maybe that would be nice to have it the other way. Although I put everything into folders. If I have more than five or ten docs in any folder I make a sub folder. I use file folders in my desk the same way- Can we say Anal?!!? :D
 
solvs said:
I kinda like the way OS X organizes files, I just wish it was easier to arrange them and keep them arranged. I agree with the Toast thing. Burning with the Finder is fine, but Toast is so much better and well worth the price.

The only thing I don't like is the way the Trash is. With Windows, you can restore something to it's original location if you accidently delete something and you can delete things from the Recycle Bin. With OS X, it seems like once you delete something, you'd have to manually move it back to it's original location. And to delete it from the Trash, you have to empty the whole thing. Sometimes I'm not sure if I want to rid of something permanently yet, and would like to be able to get rid of everything else in the Trash.
Click to expand...

The trash isn't really designed to be a staging area for stuff you think you might want to delete. Its called the Trash after all! You don't throw your dinner in a trash bin and then take it out later 'cause you want to eat it....do you? :eek:
 
brap said:
And Toast is good. You'll need it sooner or later, so why not make it sooner... Finder's burning capability sucks.
Click to expand...
Toast is what you need for sure. No doubt there. However, Finder's burner doesn't suck. There's a reason why files get copied before they are burned. It is the most foolproof way for inexperienced users to burn discs without inadvertently deleting or modifying their files during a burn. This is especially important when you are on a work network and need burn DVDs without some other network user overwrite files during a burn.
 
It would be nice if Tiger supports on-the-fly burning (or at the very least, an option)
 
I miss the that cool talking paper clip... me and him used to have a lot of good times together. I remember once when I was drunk he drove me home. Well, I guess it was him... I don't know how else I could have gotten home. :)

I missed a few things when I switched, like I don't think the Mail app is all that great, but I more or less got used to it and figured out all of the tricks. Burning seems more intuitive, but you have less control over it I guess. You can also use Disk Utility to build disk image files and then burn those. That's actually my preferred way to burn, because I like to have three or four open at once, and then distribute my files between them. That way I can match disks to directories.
 
tigers said:
http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/secrets/febmacosxhints/index.php

That column there (scroll down a bit) will tell you how to setup Finder so that folders are shown first or last when sorted by kind.

I did this little trick on my system and it works great.
Click to expand...

Thanks! This is new to me. I'm going to give this a try. Now if only file load requesters in apps defaulted to sorting by kind....
 
lom8104 said:
I converted over from windows several months ago I simply cannot believe how much better OS X is! (not to mention the hardware, which is much superior to my Dell) I described it to a longtime friend who was a mac user as waking up from a bad dream.

.....but there are two things that I miss about windows that I cannot seem to do in OS X. The first has to do with burning CDs/DVDs: Why is OS X compelled to copy everything i plan to burn onto a disc?? From burning things in the finder to using Backup the first step is to always make a duplicate of it. Windows on the other hand would setup a "virtual" (for lack of a better word) directory and would burn directly to the disc from the original location at go. With DVDs some times i don't have enough space to duplicate the data and regardless, it takes a lot of time!

My second issue is with the finder. I liked how windows would place folders first then followed by files when sorted by kind. OS X feesls compelled to put folders in the 'f' position rather than at the top or bottom.

I know there are lots of mac zealots out there....any of you wish to solve these two issues so that I can rid myself of any attachment I have with windows??? :eek:
Click to expand...


with tiger it makes aliases to the files when burning a disc....... FYI
 
Lacero said:
Toast is what you need for sure. No doubt there. However, Finder's burner doesn't suck. There's a reason why files get copied before they are burned. It is the most foolproof way for inexperienced users to burn discs without inadvertently deleting or modifying their files during a burn. This is especially important when you are on a work network and need burn DVDs without some other network user overwrite files during a burn.
Click to expand...

I'm new to a Mac, and I was just wondering exactly what Toast does so much better. I don't have a Superdrive yet, so I would mostly just be burning the occassional audio CDs and data CDs. Is Toast worth that much money? Clearly people like it, I was just wondering if you could explain to a "noob" what makes Toast so great.

Thanks in advance.
 
Lacero said:
This is especially important when you are on a work network and need burn DVDs without some other network user overwrite files during a burn.
Click to expand...
...then surely, it should make copies of those from the network, and use the local files 'as-is', locking them for editing?

I may have a kinda skewed viewpoint on this, because I've only ever had notebooks with [relatively] treacle slow hard drives. Therefore, writing CDs from finder is even more frustrating and time-consuming.
 
macrlz9 said:
with tiger it makes aliases to the files when burning a disc....... FYI
Click to expand...


Wait does this mean that Tiger doesn't re-copy your files like that guy was talking about? Oh man, I'd buy Tiger for that reason alone!

And spotlight...

And automator...

And dashboard...
 
kingjr3 said:
The trash isn't really designed to be a staging area for stuff you think you might want to delete. Its called the Trash after all! You don't throw your dinner in a trash bin and then take it out later 'cause you want to eat it....do you? :eek:
Click to expand...
Yeah, yeah, I know. ;) So I've been told. But I move around files a lot. Deleting, undeleting, replacing. I'm sure there are different ways to do things, but this is the easiest way in Windows. Just one of the (very) few things I like about Windows. You've never accidently deleted something or changed your mind and wanted it put back? :p
 
window resizing

Thanks alot for the link to change the sorting of folders, that was one of the thinks that annoyed me since I switched about a year ago. About two months ago I found out how to move files from one drive to the other (instead of copying and deleting). Now there's just two more issues that bother me:
1. Why isn't it possible to resize windows using all corners or edges like in windows, it's so annyoing to just use the bottom right corner! Anyone knows any tools to change that?
2. In XP you can delete/move/rename.. files listed within an "open/save as" dialog box, in Osx it's only possible to create a new folder. Believe me, you might think that deleting or renaming a file within a "save as" dialog box makes no sense, but actually once you have that function, you will use it often.

Other than that, I LOVE being a switcher !!!
 
Had a funny XP moment at work yesterday, with my Dell with built in DVD burner, I was trying to make a DVD rom, & no XP would not burn the DVD from the desktop, I was told by my support guys that XP will only burn CD from the desktop! & I needed some additional software to burn DVD roms. So DELL what is the point of selling a machine with a DVD burner but no way to use it! at least with osX you can use the DVD burner straight out the box with out having to buy toast, it is a pain how it works, but it dose work.
 
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