5 ms·

I just helped a friend who is a lifetime windows user set up her new MBP M1. I was reminded how un-intuitive things are and how useful UI elements are hidden

I just helped a friend who is a lifetime windows user set up her new MBP M1. I was reminded how un-intuitive things are and how useful UI elements are hidden in the name of "simplicity". A lot of it for her is centered around the finder and accessing files in general. The two biggest issues she had was: 1) finder not easily acting as an image viewer. Eg, she had an SD card from her camera, and wanted to quickly scan through the photos and decide what to keep and what to throw away. The problem was that it took a while to find a view where finder showed images ( think it was called "icon view") and once we found that, it took a while to expose a hidden ui element that we could use to make the images larger. 2) "open file" dialog boxes don't show your home directory by default. She'd have a file in /Users/name/folder and the open file dialog would only show Documents, Pictures, etc, and not her home directory. I finally helped her make symlinks from folders that the file dialog deigned to show her to where she really wanted to go. But why is there no "home" view?

agustif 5y ago
1) Just use [spacebar] on any view to open up the image in spotlight? The problem with the mac is that much has been done on top of older patterns, etc.... If you're a hardcore user though, I'd take Mac over windows or linux any day.
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  I've used Macs since 1988, and had no idea this hidden feature existed! UI features don't just need to work well, they also need to be discoverable, or they might as well not exist. The old school Apple was good at that stuff. Recent decades, not so much. PS Thanks for teaching me this trick!
  - FabHK 5y ago
    Quick Look is super useful indeed. Introduced 2007. Plugins make it even more useful (eg for json, torrents, etc.) https://github.com/sindresorhus/quick-look-plugins https://github.com/sindresorhus/quick-look-plugins
    - agustif 5y ago
      Yes, I hate it's hard to setup .ts as TypeScript files, not video files for VLC, lol
  - wp381640 5y ago
    Even as a power user and someone who loves to not RTFM i've found with iPhones / iPads / Macs you gotta refresh and reads tips / the docs to make the most of it since so much UI is hidden now (unless you're a 9 year old!)
- ForHackernews 5y ago
  > Just use [spacebar] on any view to open up the image in spotlight? Just press a random key on the keyboard? How exactly is that intuitive? Keyboard shortcuts are the absolute worst for discoverability.
  - layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
    But they are the best for productivity.
    - cronix 5y ago
      As long as people can find them, in order to use them.
  - jbverschoor 5y ago
    Most of the shortcuts are right there in the menu. For quicklook it's cmd-y and a hidden space. Use the Help menu. Read the menus.
carlob 5y ago
I switched to Linux a while ago because I was annoyed at Apple for a number of reasons so I'm not exactly an Apple fanboy. However regarding your 1) there is one thing I'm sorely missing and that's QuickLook. No matter what finder view you are in, if you are in a folder with pictures (or even Word documents) you can press the space bar to see an almost full screen preview. Arrows for navigation work as they would if the preview is not open, so if you have ordered by date modified instead of name you will browse the pictures in that order. I have yet to find something in Linux that can do that (even just for pictures).
- ehecatl42 5y ago
  If you use GNOME there is sushi: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/gnome-sushi-mac-quick-for-ubuntu https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/gnome-sushi-mac-quick-for-ubuntu
  - carlob 5y ago
    That's cool! Thanks!
- drewg123 5y ago
  Wow, spacebar? I've been using a mac on and off since 2004 and I never knew that. Talk about hidden, undiscoverable UI elements.
- yesenadam 5y ago
  SPACE works for previewing many/most types of files, not just images! Video, audio, text, pdf, html etc. Folders too.
  - alanbernstein 5y ago
    It also works with plugins for many other types, e.g. https://github.com/vibrog/quicklook-gpx https://github.com/vibrog/quicklook-gpx
adamsvystun 5y ago
The first issue is confusing to me. I also recently switched to Mac and I find Finder to be super intuitive and easy to use. Icons view is very easy to find, there is literally only 9 buttons in Finder, where 4 of them represent different views... As regards to making icons larger I agree that finding the actual setting is complicated, but I intuitively tried cmd+plus(+) and it worked. btw for looking through photos I find gallery view to be more convenient.
FabHK 5y ago
1) hit space for Quick Look, then scroll through? Or use column view. 2) home folder is listed on the Sidebar by default (its name is the user short name, ie its actual name). If that is not there for some reason, go to Finder -> Preferences -> Sidebar.
- drewg123 5y ago
  Thanks. Again, I've been using a mac on and off for almost 20 years and didn't realize there was a way to enable finder to view the home folder. I wonder if the option just didn't exist back in ~2003 or so..
- Liquid_Fire 5y ago
  > home folder is listed on the Sidebar by default Definitely not on by default, at least on Big Sur. I had to Google how to get to it.
  - FabHK 5y ago
    Oh, sorry. I must have set it up way back then, and pulled it forward with each migration to a new Mac.
- jbverschoor 5y ago
  You can simply add it. And otherwise, the shortcut is cmd-shit-H for Home. It's all listed in the "Go" menu.
pilsetnieks 5y ago
> it took a while to expose a hidden ui element that we could use to make the images larger Every folder in icon view has a slider at the bottom for exactly this purpose.
alanbernstein 5y ago
1) Finder is an excellent image viewer. You want gallery view, which is one of the prominent buttons visible by default in the OS version I'm using. Maximize the window, and images will be nearly full-screen. No hidden UI elements needed. It's crazy to me that there is nothing like this (?) by default in Ubuntu. In the case that icon view really is what you want, you can adjust icon sizes with the slider in the bottom right corner - still no hidden UI elements. 2) Agreed, this is silly. This is likely fixed by one of the items in this very long list of power-user tweaks: https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/master/.macos https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/master/.macos
dhosek 5y ago
1. If you select a file and press space, it opens a preview. Not just for images, but for anything that has a registered preview (so, for example, install word, press space on a .docx file and you can look inside without actually launching word). When I have to use Windows, the lack of an equivalent functionality distressing. 2. The home directory usually isn't that useful or interesting to navigate to in practice. I rarely want to go there in my own usage. In finder, if you drag a folder to the sidebar, it will appear in all open dialogs which is handy for frequently used folders wherever they might be (I think I had to do this manually when I installed Sync on my computers but Dropbox did it of its own volition)
- qubitcoder 5y ago
  The home directory is one of my most frequent destinations in Finder, and the first thing I enable in Finder (Preferences > Sidebar > <username>). And then I move it to the very top of the sidebar. I'd argue that removing the home directory by default results in more confusion (as I've encountered multiple times now when helping others switch to macOS).
qubitcoder 5y ago
For 1): In Finder, you can go to _View > as Icons_ (or simply ⌘+1). Then you can use ⌘ +/- (command plus/minus) to zoom in and out, respectively.

agustif 5y ago

1) Just use [spacebar] on any view to open up the image in spotlight? The problem with the mac is that much has been done on top of older patterns, etc.... If you're a hardcore user though, I'd take Mac over windows or linux any day.

BurningFrog 5y ago
I've used Macs since 1988, and had no idea this hidden feature existed! UI features don't just need to work well, they also need to be discoverable, or they might as well not exist. The old school Apple was good at that stuff. Recent decades, not so much. PS Thanks for teaching me this trick!
- FabHK 5y ago
  Quick Look is super useful indeed. Introduced 2007. Plugins make it even more useful (eg for json, torrents, etc.) https://github.com/sindresorhus/quick-look-plugins https://github.com/sindresorhus/quick-look-plugins
  - agustif 5y ago
    Yes, I hate it's hard to setup .ts as TypeScript files, not video files for VLC, lol
- wp381640 5y ago
  Even as a power user and someone who loves to not RTFM i've found with iPhones / iPads / Macs you gotta refresh and reads tips / the docs to make the most of it since so much UI is hidden now (unless you're a 9 year old!)
ForHackernews 5y ago
> Just use [spacebar] on any view to open up the image in spotlight? Just press a random key on the keyboard? How exactly is that intuitive? Keyboard shortcuts are the absolute worst for discoverability.
- layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
  But they are the best for productivity.
  - cronix 5y ago
    As long as people can find them, in order to use them.
- jbverschoor 5y ago
  Most of the shortcuts are right there in the menu. For quicklook it's cmd-y and a hidden space. Use the Help menu. Read the menus.

carlob 5y ago

I switched to Linux a while ago because I was annoyed at Apple for a number of reasons so I'm not exactly an Apple fanboy. However regarding your 1) there is one thing I'm sorely missing and that's QuickLook. No matter what finder view you are in, if you are in a folder with pictures (or even Word documents) you can press the space bar to see an almost full screen preview. Arrows for navigation work as they would if the preview is not open, so if you have ordered by date modified instead of name you will browse the pictures in that order. I have yet to find something in Linux that can do that (even just for pictures).

ehecatl42 5y ago
If you use GNOME there is sushi: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/gnome-sushi-mac-quick-for-ubuntu https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/gnome-sushi-mac-quick-for-ubuntu
- carlob 5y ago
  That's cool! Thanks!
drewg123 5y ago
Wow, spacebar? I've been using a mac on and off since 2004 and I never knew that. Talk about hidden, undiscoverable UI elements.
yesenadam 5y ago
SPACE works for previewing many/most types of files, not just images! Video, audio, text, pdf, html etc. Folders too.
- alanbernstein 5y ago
  It also works with plugins for many other types, e.g. https://github.com/vibrog/quicklook-gpx https://github.com/vibrog/quicklook-gpx

adamsvystun 5y ago

The first issue is confusing to me. I also recently switched to Mac and I find Finder to be super intuitive and easy to use. Icons view is very easy to find, there is literally only 9 buttons in Finder, where 4 of them represent different views... As regards to making icons larger I agree that finding the actual setting is complicated, but I intuitively tried cmd+plus(+) and it worked. btw for looking through photos I find gallery view to be more convenient.

FabHK 5y ago

1) hit space for Quick Look, then scroll through? Or use column view. 2) home folder is listed on the Sidebar by default (its name is the user short name, ie its actual name). If that is not there for some reason, go to Finder -> Preferences -> Sidebar.

drewg123 5y ago
Thanks. Again, I've been using a mac on and off for almost 20 years and didn't realize there was a way to enable finder to view the home folder. I wonder if the option just didn't exist back in ~2003 or so..
Liquid_Fire 5y ago
> home folder is listed on the Sidebar by default Definitely not on by default, at least on Big Sur. I had to Google how to get to it.
- FabHK 5y ago
  Oh, sorry. I must have set it up way back then, and pulled it forward with each migration to a new Mac.
jbverschoor 5y ago
You can simply add it. And otherwise, the shortcut is cmd-shit-H for Home. It's all listed in the "Go" menu.

pilsetnieks 5y ago

> it took a while to expose a hidden ui element that we could use to make the images larger Every folder in icon view has a slider at the bottom for exactly this purpose.

alanbernstein 5y ago

1) Finder is an excellent image viewer. You want gallery view, which is one of the prominent buttons visible by default in the OS version I'm using. Maximize the window, and images will be nearly full-screen. No hidden UI elements needed. It's crazy to me that there is nothing like this (?) by default in Ubuntu. In the case that icon view really is what you want, you can adjust icon sizes with the slider in the bottom right corner - still no hidden UI elements. 2) Agreed, this is silly. This is likely fixed by one of the items in this very long list of power-user tweaks: https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/master/.macos https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/master/.macos

dhosek 5y ago

1. If you select a file and press space, it opens a preview. Not just for images, but for anything that has a registered preview (so, for example, install word, press space on a .docx file and you can look inside without actually launching word). When I have to use Windows, the lack of an equivalent functionality distressing. 2. The home directory usually isn't that useful or interesting to navigate to in practice. I rarely want to go there in my own usage. In finder, if you drag a folder to the sidebar, it will appear in all open dialogs which is handy for frequently used folders wherever they might be (I think I had to do this manually when I installed Sync on my computers but Dropbox did it of its own volition)

qubitcoder 5y ago
The home directory is one of my most frequent destinations in Finder, and the first thing I enable in Finder (Preferences > Sidebar > <username>). And then I move it to the very top of the sidebar. I'd argue that removing the home directory by default results in more confusion (as I've encountered multiple times now when helping others switch to macOS).

qubitcoder 5y ago

For 1): In Finder, you can go to _View > as Icons_ (or simply ⌘+1). Then you can use ⌘ +/- (command plus/minus) to zoom in and out, respectively.