soundtrane Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 There is definitely one thing I find very frustrating on the Mac - the dependence on the mouse. I started using computers before the mouse became an important part of the system, during the PC XT era. Even nowadays with Windows machines, I prefer using the keyboard most of the time just because I am so used to it, and use the mouse very little. In fact the mouse in this case becomes an alternative means of input. In the Mac, i found some very standard practises I am used to just don't work or do something completely different. For example, usually I use the TAB key frequently to switch cyclically between various fields and hot points on a web page or a form. Similarly in Safari, switching between tabs in one window needs one to use the Shift-Apple- Left/Right arrow keys in combination. Now, this simply does not work if the cursor is in a text entry field. I have to use the mouse, either to click out of the entry field or might as well to select the other tab. There are many other such instances. Also I would really love more flexibility in the Finder windows, which I find quite frustrating. Another one is the Preview - I would like it to enlarge the window in which a PDF (for example) is opened and include the whole page instead of opening it in a smaller window forcing me to drag the corner and then hit a key. I think these are simple things which the software interface should definitely include. I think any OS interface has to also account for power users of the keyboard and make mouse pointing an option. I have been using the Mac extensively for a couple of years and I know more keyboard shortcuts than many users who have been with MACs longer than me, and this also applies for most PC users I encounter. I must point out here that this post is not bashing any system or interface, I am too far beyond taking sides on this kind of thing. There are enough problems with the WIN XP interface as well. Computer software user interfaces simply don't have enough cognitive sense built in and always tend to reside on the borderlines of user experience. best -vin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest soundchris Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 Hi Vinod! Have a look at "Butler", it is a great tool: http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?section=butler&layout=default Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundtrane Posted January 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 thanks chris, but it's still an application out of the OSX that I have to run. My gripe with OSystems still stands! best -vin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker71 Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Apple are working on it. They bought "multi-touch" from this guy and put it in the iPhone. I'm sure it'll make it's way into more standard computer interfaces one day. (even if you just think the iPhone is vanilla touchscreen, you gotta watch that vid to realise the full potential of this thing!) But I agree, keyboard shortcuts on OS X as it stands today are not so good except in specialist apps like FCP or whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Barnts Posted January 16, 2007 Report Share Posted January 16, 2007 I have often shared your frustration about the mouse thing, but I think it depends on the specific application, some support power users much better than others. The issue with cycling through the tabs in Safari for example, works fine in Firefox. In Preview, have you tried checking the preference under the PDF tab where it says "Scale pages to fit display"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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