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While it doesn’t solve the issue of not knowing a feature is there in the first place, if there’s something you’d like to do in an app, you can get a long way b
by deergomoo 7y ago
While it doesn’t solve the issue of not knowing a feature is there in the first place, if there’s something you’d like to do in an app, you can get a long way by hitting “Help” in the menu bar and typing it into the search field. If there are any matches for it you’ll immediately know you can do it, and it will open up the menu and show you exactly where it is (and the keyboard shortcut, if there is one).
This is the primary way I look for power-user or other non-obvious features in new Mac apps.
- barrkel 7y agoMenus are still superior to help search for feature discovery because they are an explicit navigable enumeration of the feature set surface; if help doesn't have the right synonyms, you'll be stuck, whereas menu item listing might hint at different ways to accomplish the same end goal.
- snowwrestler 7y agoMac menus list the keyboard shortcuts for menu items right next to the items.
- barrkel 7y agoSo do menus on all desktop platforms I've used. My point is that menus work as a way of exposing functionality and making it discoverable through enumeration in a way that contextual UIs and fashionable techniques of the day don't.
- int_19h 7y agoI'm pretty sure that visible shortcuts are a CUA thing. They date way back - even text-mode menu-driven DOS apps had them, e.g. all the Borland IDEs.
- wlesieutre 7y agoFYI the search box in the help menu searches the rest of the menu bar. It's great for feature discovery if you think something might exist but don't know where it is.