Why do people hate the Touch Bar?

[ipponrg]

I finally got my first MBP with it and have found it to be useful, I like how it adapts to whatever app I'm using and throws up all the auto correct when I'm typing. Also the volume and other system shortcuts have really come in handy, I would say my most used is the screenshot.

The cool thing about MacOS is there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts available without having to look at the touchbar. Many are actually intuitive.

Take a screenshot on Mac - Apple Support

You can capture the entire screen, a window, or just a portion of the screen.

support.apple.com

 

[TrueBlou]

I finally got my first MBP with it and have found it to be useful, I like how it adapts to whatever app I'm using and throws up all the auto correct when I'm typing. Also the volume and other system shortcuts have really come in handy, I would say my most used is the screenshot.

That’s great, I’m glad you’re enjoying it and finding it useful. I think that’s one of the benefits of the TB - bringing to light useful features people may not know the shortcuts to.

By which I just mean, well let’s use your examples. Autocorrect happens as you type anyway and can actually be customised quite a bit to make life easier, but bringing up alternatives on the TB can be handy.

The volume shortcuts have been on standard keyboards for donkey’s, so we’ll skip that.

The screenshot shortcut, that is very handy and bringing it into easy reach for people on the TB is great, but many of us who’ve been using keyboards for a long time tend to learn the shortcuts - Shift, Cmd, 3 for instance is the keyboard shortcut for a screenshot. While Shift, Cmd and 4 allows capturing a portion of the screen. And Shift, Cmd, 4 and Space grabs a window or menu.

So, for many of those things, they already exist and for an awful lot of them, have for a long, long time. But they’re one of those, you know or you don’t things.
So I think that’s what the TB can be a great tool for, exposing useful features to people who don’t know about them. That’s partly why I think they should keep it, but still bring back function keys.

 

[Maconplasma]

The touchbar will be eternally debated in these forums. For every 10 people that dislike it, there is going to be that 1 that likes it and feels compelled to make a post about it again.

The same pros and cons have been listed in every one of these threads. Anecdotally, the cons outweigh the pros greatly

Either you’re joking or your on something because it’s exactly the other way around. There’s more people who like the TB than not. We’ve had multiple poles here that prove exactly that. And it’s ALWAYS the TB haters who work their hardest to try and drown out anyone who says they like it by coming up with such stupid reasons to hate it.

 

[Maconplasma]

The cool thing about MacOS is there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts available without having to look at the touchbar. Many are actually intuitive.

Take a screenshot on Mac - Apple Support

You can capture the entire screen, a window, or just a portion of the screen.

support.apple.com

Oh yeah because most people don’t have to look down at the keyboard to do shortcuts. 🙄
I just love the people who hate on the TB saying it forces them to look down to use it when the majority of the world still can’t type worth a damn unless they are using their two index fingers keeping their head buried down on the keyboard looking at every key they type.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Oh yeah because most people don’t have to look down at the keyboard to do shortcuts. 🙄
I just love the people who hate on the TB saying it forces them to look down to use it when the majority of the world still can’t type worth a damn unless they are using their two index fingers keeping their head buried down on the keyboard looking at every key they type.

I can't speak for "most people" (would love to have you cite your source for that one)... but I don't have to look at the keyboard to type a key-combo shortcut. I learned typing in high school (yeah, it was almost 50 years ago), and am a pretty good touch typist... I know where the physical keys are... but never could find some arbirary spot on a touch screen without looking.

As with most things, avoid "always", "never", "everyone", "no one", generalizations and "made up" facts. I read somewhere that 73.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot to support one's argument.

YMMV.

 

[AZhappyjack]

I understand that, but the disadvantage is that the keys are unchangeable in function. So while my 2014 MBP has two keys I never use, the M1 Air has four keys I would never use. Combine that with the fact that I almost never adjust the key backlighting so I would prefer it to be a single on/off toggle which means that my current computer has three keys I want to change and the new M1 Air has five.

Besides I never touch-type the function key row so that benefit is lost on me.

I guess that's why Mr Baskins and Mr Robbins have 31 flavors... works for me... agree to disagree on it's utility.

 

[joptimus]

Oh yeah because most people don’t have to look down at the keyboard to do shortcuts. 🙄
I just love the people who hate on the TB saying it forces them to look down to use it when the majority of the world still can’t type worth a damn unless they are using their two index fingers keeping their head buried down on the keyboard looking at every key they type.

Please don't draw conclusion about others from yourself...

It's a simple fact that it's easier to feel and type if there are physical keys. Period.
Are you disputing 1+1=2 next?

And why is this topic coming up again and again? It has been discussed to death. Buy it or don't, I suppose the majority of people is sick and tired of rehashing this over and over.

 

[ericgtr12]

That’s great, I’m glad you’re enjoying it and finding it useful. I think that’s one of the benefits of the TB - bringing to light useful features people may not know the shortcuts to.

By which I just mean, well let’s use your examples. Autocorrect happens as you type anyway and can actually be customised quite a bit to make life easier, but bringing up alternatives on the TB can be handy.

The volume shortcuts have been on standard keyboards for donkey’s, so we’ll skip that.

The screenshot shortcut, that is very handy and bringing it into easy reach for people on the TB is great, but many of us who’ve been using keyboards for a long time tend to learn the shortcuts - Shift, Cmd, 3 for instance is the keyboard shortcut for a screenshot. While Shift, Cmd and 4 allows capturing a portion of the screen. And Shift, Cmd, 4 and Space grabs a window or menu.

So, for many of those things, they already exist and for an awful lot of them, have for a long, long time. But they’re one of those, you know or you don’t things.
So I think that’s what the TB can be a great tool for, exposing useful features to people who don’t know about them. That’s partly why I think they should keep it, but still bring back function keys.

Taking screenshots has always been one of the most painful tasks on a mac IMO, as is learning/remembering all the keyboard shortcuts for these things. To me it's simplicity, ease of use and placement are well suited for regular users.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Taking screenshots has always been one of the most painful tasks on a mac IMO, as is learning/remembering all the keyboard shortcuts for these things. To me it's simplicity, ease of use and placement are well suited for regular users.

Seriously? It's really not difficult to remember Shift+Command+3 or Shift+Control+4... of course there are additional options, but those two key-combinations will get it done most of the time...

And I can do either/both without looking at the keyboard.

 

[bobcomer]

Seriously? It's really not difficult to remember Shift+Command+3 or Shift+Control+4... of course there are additional options, but those two key-combinations will get it done most of the time...

That's not nearly as easy as "PrtSc", and "Alt-PrtSc" like a Windows PC.

To tell the truth, I so rarely do print screens on the Mac, that I don't even remember those key combos of yours -- I have to look it up every time.

 

[AZhappyjack]

That's not nearly as easy as "PrtSc", and "Alt-PrtSc" like a Windows PC.

To tell the truth, I so rarely do print screens on the Mac, that I don't even remember those key combos of yours -- I have to look it up every time.

I can't tell you what is easier for you to use or remember, but it's pretty intuitive FOR ME. Muscle memory. YMMV.

 

[Bruninho]

Most keyboard commands are still the same since Mac OS 9. I know that because sometimes I am playing with a OS 9 VM and the next minute I am on my iPad with the Smart Keyboard typing a text. The shortcuts are pretty much the same for the last 30 years. I was impressed when I realized this.

 

[bobcomer]

I can't tell you what is easier for you to use or remember, but it's pretty intuitive FOR ME. Muscle memory. YMMV.

Oh, I agree, most things on a keyboard are muscle memory for me too, just not screen prints on the Mac.

 

[ericgtr12]

Seriously? It's really not difficult to remember Shift+Command+3 or Shift+Control+4... of course there are additional options, but those two key-combinations will get it done most of the time...

And I can do either/both without looking at the keyboard.

Yes, seriously. A single button with a camera on it or remember one of two three-key commands every time. It's ridiculous frankly, at least Windows has a print screen button.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

No tactile feedback
Laggy input
Takes longer to perform many app-centric actions

 

[otternonsense]

Because it's awful gimmicky tosh with no tactile feedback to facilitate building muscle memory. You invoke it by mistake just by a gentle brush on its surface. And when you work you don't look at your keyboard. I just wish it was optional.

 

[bunnspecial]

Screen shots and a whole bunch of other stuff have been muscle memory for me for a long time.

The designers of the original Macintosh OS put a lot of time and thought into it. Many people assume that because Macs were the first wide-spread use of a mouse that the Mac OS was designed to use a mouse as it's primary input device. That's pretty far from the truth-it actually was carefully designed to have the keyboard and mouse work in harmony with each other.

Consequently, a lot of keyboard shortcuts have lasted through close to 40 years of Mac OS. The keyboard shortcuts are, to me, one of THE most elegant things about Mac OS/OS X/macOS since they are a "key" to working efficiently.

As an idle thought with the touchbar replacing the function keys-anyone remember back in the dark old days having app functions tied into them? Many programs would come with or have available a function row overlay to help you use them. If you used a program enough, though, you'd not have to look at the overlay. The touchbar is sort of an automatically changing overlay, except there again it lacks the tactile sensation of keys so you HAVE to look at it.

 

[Lemon Olive]

Gee lets see...

1. It is extremely low quality: the display is fuzzy and there is no haptic feedback. Pretty lame effort for something that was meant to replace keyboard buttons!
2. All it accomplished was making it more difficult to use the function row. It defeats the purpose of keyboard, and flies in the face of how a keyboard is used.

 

[robd003]

I'm only just over a week with my first MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar (M1 MacBook Pro 8gb, 512gb SSD.... LOVE IT!) and I'm not getting why people hate it. It seems like a great way to utilize the function space based upon what you're doing. Other than not using it a ton yet, I don't see why people would hate it. Is it a big deal that there aren't physical keys in the function row?

I can't stand that most browsers have a refresh button on the touch bar. Ever enter credit card numbers and then type 3 or 4 and then magically the page refreshes losing all of your order information because you slightly touched the touchbar? Infuriating.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I haven’t met anybody that dislikes it personally so can’t really answer for them

 

[w0lf]

With the physical buttons you always know what button will be where and what it will do. Just like a user can learn to type on a keyboard without looking at the keys you can use the fn keys without looking.

With the touchbar that is not the case and even though you can use a third party app to make the touchbar essentially static it is still not quite the same without physical keys.

The touchbar is much more prone to accidental presses than the physical keys.

Lastly most of the "cool" things you can do with the touchbar generally fall into the category of gimmick since they are also generally achievable via a key code or mouse scroll and if a user found some reason that they 100% needed the touchbar for you can just emulate on devices that don't have the touchbar.

 

[AZhappyjack]

I haven’t met anybody that dislikes it personally so can’t really answer for them

Well then, let me introduce myself.

 

[ipponrg]

Either you’re joking or your on something because it’s exactly the other way around. There’s more people who like the TB than not. We’ve had multiple poles here that prove exactly that. And it’s ALWAYS the TB haters who work their hardest to try and drown out anyone who says they like it by coming up with such stupid reasons to hate it.

If I based it on these forums alone and your selective interpretation of limited polls, perhaps.

As a reminder -- the thread topic is "Why do people hate the touchbar." Expect people that dislike the touchbar to voice their opinions.

 

[Maconplasma]

As a reminder -- the thread topic is "Why do people hate the touchbar." Expect people that dislike the touchbar to voice their opinions.

As do the ones who like/love the TB will also voice their opinions here. What the hell is this thread, only available to negative responses? Positive threads get mixed responses too. Keep that in mind before attempting to set me straight. 🙄

 

[nStyle]

Mainly because it’s not essential and felt redundant. But more importantly, I just value physical keys more.