5 ms·

I agree with all of your points and would add: 1. Why is it so hard to keep track of recently recently touched files and folders in Finder? 2. Why does the sa

by nihonde 10y ago

I agree with all of your points and would add: 1. Why is it so hard to keep track of recently recently touched files and folders in Finder? 2. Why does the save/open dialogue constantly forget where I was just saving/opening stuff? 3. Why doesn't opening a new tab open to your current location instead of ~/? 4. Why can't I completely customize the sidebar in a Finder window? 5. Why isn't there a native window switcher keyboard mapping? 6. Why do menubar items just vanish without a trace when menus need horizontal space? I could go on but these things persist as problems for years while Apple focuses its efforts on superficial UI gimmicks.

mistersquid 10y ago
> 1. Why is it so hard to keep track of recently recently touched files and folders in Finder? This one's sort of on the user. Not sure how it could be simplified. > 2. Why does the save/open dialogue constantly forget where I was just saving/opening stuff? This is dependent on the application doing the saving, not on the Finder. Some applications are very good at remembering last-saved location. Photoshop and BBEdit are good examples of this, especially Photoshop which has per-menu-item preferences for things like Open, Save, and Export. However, many applications have developers not familiar with macOS conventions and so don't provide such affordances (I won't single out any applications because they really are too numerous to mention.) > 3. Why doesn't opening a new tab open to your current location instead of ~/? This is customizable in Finder > Preferences… I'm not sure what you mean by "current location". If you mean duplicate where you are now there are other ways to do it. I personally have a AppleScript that copies my current POSIX path to my clipboard. I type Command T to open a new tab, Type Command-Shift G to "Go to Folder" and type Command V to paste what's on my clipboard. But I'm not sure that's what you're looking for. You might head on over to http://discussions.apple.com http://discussions.apple.com and ask over there. > 4. Why can't I completely customize the sidebar in a Finder window? Yeah the customizability is restricted, mainly because letting it be too customizable means inexperienced users can get their sidebar where it's next to impossible to provide support. That said, advanced users usually know that the sidebar is only to store a few handy items. I mainly use it only for visual confirmation that my remote mounts and local disks are mounted. I use keyboard shortcuts to navigate the file system in the Finder. > 5. Why isn't there a native window switcher keyboard mapping? I think you're looking for Command ` and Command-shift `. This works pretty much system wide (except for a few applications by software vendors that. Just. Refuse. Native. Keyboard shortcuts.) > 6. Why do menubar items just vanish without a trace when menus need horizontal space? Do you mean that your menubar is so crowded that you lose menu items? I think I recall this happening and, to be honest, I don't have any solutions here. You might head on over to http://discussions.apple.com http://discussions.apple.com. People can be really helpful there. Good luck.
bemmu 10y ago
I started wondering if there is no solution to this, so I posted a question to AskDifferent. This is the solution that was suggested and it looks extremely promising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4unOC5ZDT98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4unOC5ZDT98
72deluxe 10y ago
1. Go to All My Files and order by date in list view perhaps? 2. Dependent on the application. Eg. for wxWidgets (which wraps Cocoa) you have to supply the default directory when the dialog is created. If you are a poor coder, you'll put a dumb value in here instead of remembering the CWD or recently used dir, hence the dialog showing the wrong dir all the time. It's basically down to each app to tell the dialog where it should start. 3. Not sure on this one - I thought it was a preference. 4. You can remove and add stuff - what else did you want to do? You wouldn't want that horrible places/links area of Windows 10's Explorer would you? It's horrible. 5. cmd-' I think, to switch windows inside the current app. Alternatively I map my bottom right screen zone as "show all windows", and map ctrl-up to do the same. 6. Daft isn't it? The menu font should decrease perhaps. The difficulty is I have loads of stuff in the menubar top right (sort of like Windows taskbar) so what can the menu do if it runs out of space?
- nihonde 10y ago
  Thanks for taking the time to respond. 1. Works but no way to include recent directories. I've tried smart search queries for this but it doesn't work. I usually need to recall locations of groups of files more so than a stream of touched files. Also, what if I want to create multiple versions of this with various filters. Again, saved searches don't work (or at least didn't when I tried it). 2. This is true, but obviously leaving it up to devs is a failed strategy that Apple should take control of. 3. There's a silly option to right click on the path at the bottom to open current location in a new tab but no global pref that I'm aware of. It seems like an easy one to implement! 4. I want that list of recently-touched folders in the sidebar. 5. It works but only within the current app, so you need to alternate between cmd-' and cmd-tab. I want something like witch. It's one thing windows does better. 6. They should collapse into a menu, similar to bartender.
  - 72deluxe 10y ago
    Point 1 - what a pity! On Windows we can use Everything which uses the NTFS index to do really fast searches; it is a pity there isn't the same function on Mac OS filesystem (as far as I know). Note that point 2 is the same problem on any OS - if you open a file dialog, you have to supply the working directory for the dialog so it affects Mac OS, Windows, Linux etc. It isn't a problem that Apple should take care of - who says the dialog box should always go back to the same directory? In some cases it might not be required, which is why they leave it up to the application devs. Tell your app devs to stop being so lazy. For point 5, it is debatable. On Windows if you have multiple non-modal (or even modal) dialogs open as children of an application, Windows can sometimes get the Z order wrong and there is no way to alt-tab to that window, as alt-tabbing shows the parent window. So having a window switch option would be great (actually Windows 10 fixes this a bit with its Windows-tab overview system).

by nihonde 10y ago

mistersquid 10y ago

> 1. Why is it so hard to keep track of recently recently touched files and folders in Finder? This one's sort of on the user. Not sure how it could be simplified. > 2. Why does the save/open dialogue constantly forget where I was just saving/opening stuff? This is dependent on the application doing the saving, not on the Finder. Some applications are very good at remembering last-saved location. Photoshop and BBEdit are good examples of this, especially Photoshop which has per-menu-item preferences for things like Open, Save, and Export. However, many applications have developers not familiar with macOS conventions and so don't provide such affordances (I won't single out any applications because they really are too numerous to mention.) > 3. Why doesn't opening a new tab open to your current location instead of ~/? This is customizable in Finder > Preferences… I'm not sure what you mean by "current location". If you mean duplicate where you are now there are other ways to do it. I personally have a AppleScript that copies my current POSIX path to my clipboard. I type Command T to open a new tab, Type Command-Shift G to "Go to Folder" and type Command V to paste what's on my clipboard. But I'm not sure that's what you're looking for. You might head on over to http://discussions.apple.com http://discussions.apple.com and ask over there. > 4. Why can't I completely customize the sidebar in a Finder window? Yeah the customizability is restricted, mainly because letting it be too customizable means inexperienced users can get their sidebar where it's next to impossible to provide support. That said, advanced users usually know that the sidebar is only to store a few handy items. I mainly use it only for visual confirmation that my remote mounts and local disks are mounted. I use keyboard shortcuts to navigate the file system in the Finder. > 5. Why isn't there a native window switcher keyboard mapping? I think you're looking for Command ` and Command-shift `. This works pretty much system wide (except for a few applications by software vendors that. Just. Refuse. Native. Keyboard shortcuts.) > 6. Why do menubar items just vanish without a trace when menus need horizontal space? Do you mean that your menubar is so crowded that you lose menu items? I think I recall this happening and, to be honest, I don't have any solutions here. You might head on over to http://discussions.apple.com http://discussions.apple.com. People can be really helpful there. Good luck.

bemmu 10y ago

I started wondering if there is no solution to this, so I posted a question to AskDifferent. This is the solution that was suggested and it looks extremely promising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4unOC5ZDT98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4unOC5ZDT98

72deluxe 10y ago

1. Go to All My Files and order by date in list view perhaps? 2. Dependent on the application. Eg. for wxWidgets (which wraps Cocoa) you have to supply the default directory when the dialog is created. If you are a poor coder, you'll put a dumb value in here instead of remembering the CWD or recently used dir, hence the dialog showing the wrong dir all the time. It's basically down to each app to tell the dialog where it should start. 3. Not sure on this one - I thought it was a preference. 4. You can remove and add stuff - what else did you want to do? You wouldn't want that horrible places/links area of Windows 10's Explorer would you? It's horrible. 5. cmd-' I think, to switch windows inside the current app. Alternatively I map my bottom right screen zone as "show all windows", and map ctrl-up to do the same. 6. Daft isn't it? The menu font should decrease perhaps. The difficulty is I have loads of stuff in the menubar top right (sort of like Windows taskbar) so what can the menu do if it runs out of space?

nihonde 10y ago
Thanks for taking the time to respond. 1. Works but no way to include recent directories. I've tried smart search queries for this but it doesn't work. I usually need to recall locations of groups of files more so than a stream of touched files. Also, what if I want to create multiple versions of this with various filters. Again, saved searches don't work (or at least didn't when I tried it). 2. This is true, but obviously leaving it up to devs is a failed strategy that Apple should take control of. 3. There's a silly option to right click on the path at the bottom to open current location in a new tab but no global pref that I'm aware of. It seems like an easy one to implement! 4. I want that list of recently-touched folders in the sidebar. 5. It works but only within the current app, so you need to alternate between cmd-' and cmd-tab. I want something like witch. It's one thing windows does better. 6. They should collapse into a menu, similar to bartender.
- 72deluxe 10y ago
  Point 1 - what a pity! On Windows we can use Everything which uses the NTFS index to do really fast searches; it is a pity there isn't the same function on Mac OS filesystem (as far as I know). Note that point 2 is the same problem on any OS - if you open a file dialog, you have to supply the working directory for the dialog so it affects Mac OS, Windows, Linux etc. It isn't a problem that Apple should take care of - who says the dialog box should always go back to the same directory? In some cases it might not be required, which is why they leave it up to the application devs. Tell your app devs to stop being so lazy. For point 5, it is debatable. On Windows if you have multiple non-modal (or even modal) dialogs open as children of an application, Windows can sometimes get the Z order wrong and there is no way to alt-tab to that window, as alt-tabbing shows the parent window. So having a window switch option would be great (actually Windows 10 fixes this a bit with its Windows-tab overview system).