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TICKET ARCHIVE -> OSX's incessant cascaing of windows - how to abolish?
RobinS - Jun 22, 2006 - 11:51 am
I notice many program will allow 2 windows to open up in their previous positions, but any more windows (like in Finder and Word 2004) start cascading down and slightly to the right. This is a very unthought out feature of OS X. Especially as the ability to drag the window to the right size is on the bottom right corner - and when the window is cascaded, its dissappears. Then you have to waste time to drag the window back up so you can drag the window to the needed size. Of course a simple MAXIMIZE keyboard shortcut (Alt+Spacebar+X in Windows) would make all this needless.
Now if I was able to stop the cascading effect of OS X in the first place, I wouldn't have these problems.
Is it possible to stop windows from cascading?
Now if I was able to stop the cascading effect of OS X in the first place, I wouldn't have these problems.
Is it possible to stop windows from cascading?
hixer - Jun 23, 2006 - 11:10 pm
I looked into this quite a bit. It sounds like it was a plausible design choice. As many people seem to like it as not. How many windows do you have open at a time? I tried this with Word, and it took like 100 windows...anyway, I think the best bet is to use Expose more. Hit F9 to layout all the windows that are open, and F10 to layout all the windows within a program.
I think that's your best option. I guess.
Jim
Rank Amateur
I think that's your best option. I guess.
Jim
Rank Amateur
RobinS - Jun 25, 2006 - 9:27 pm
Take the Finder - on the 3rd window the column adjusters (on the bottom) are gone as soon as the windows start cascading. Somebody at Apple is asleep at the wheel.
But on the bright side, something is allowing 2 to remain in the same spot. If there's 2, why can't I have 3 or 4? I rarely have more than 4 Finder windows open at once. And if It works for Finder, maybe it will work for Word. Expose is just not an option for me. Way too slow.
I bet we will soon see tabbed working windows in Word and other programs like we have in Opera, Firefox, Safari and other web browsers.
But on the bright side, something is allowing 2 to remain in the same spot. If there's 2, why can't I have 3 or 4? I rarely have more than 4 Finder windows open at once. And if It works for Finder, maybe it will work for Word. Expose is just not an option for me. Way too slow.
I bet we will soon see tabbed working windows in Word and other programs like we have in Opera, Firefox, Safari and other web browsers.
hixer - Jun 26, 2006 - 10:06 am
Hmm. I open about a dozen Finder windows and as it cascades towards the bottom, it relocates new windows to open screen real estate. What is your hardware/software?
On the occasion that I lose a window, I do use the F9/10.
Jim
On the occasion that I lose a window, I do use the F9/10.
Jim
RobinS - Jun 27, 2006 - 1:22 am
When your Finder windows start cascading, please tell me how you resize the column widths in Column View? Because I have to drag the window up because the moron that designs this putrid software did not deem it necessary to put the column width sizers on the top and bottom - only on the bottom so as soon as the window cascades downwards, the colmun resizers are invisible. Of course this wouldn't be necessary if somebody at Apple would figure out how to:
RESIZE THE COLUMN WIDTH AUTOMATICALLY TO THE LONGEST NAME IN THAT COLUMN.
But that is asking too much - too logical for Apple.
I'm not talking about losing a window - I"m talking about mvoing data around without wasting time draging and resizeing maybe a 100 columns a day. Using F9/10........can you imagine doing that 100 times a day? That would get tedious, don't you think?
Hardware is a 1.25 ghz Mini, 250 gb IDE hard drive on a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter with a Sony full size DVD burner on the other IDE channel (tossed the silly notebook drive/burner long ago), and 1024 mb ram. MS 4000 ergo keyboard, Trackball Explorer, 19" LCD at 1280 x 1024 @ 60 hz.
RESIZE THE COLUMN WIDTH AUTOMATICALLY TO THE LONGEST NAME IN THAT COLUMN.
But that is asking too much - too logical for Apple.
I'm not talking about losing a window - I"m talking about mvoing data around without wasting time draging and resizeing maybe a 100 columns a day. Using F9/10........can you imagine doing that 100 times a day? That would get tedious, don't you think?
Hardware is a 1.25 ghz Mini, 250 gb IDE hard drive on a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter with a Sony full size DVD burner on the other IDE channel (tossed the silly notebook drive/burner long ago), and 1024 mb ram. MS 4000 ergo keyboard, Trackball Explorer, 19" LCD at 1280 x 1024 @ 60 hz.
hixer - Jun 27, 2006 - 8:12 pm
Sounds like you and OSX aren't sharing much love. I'll take it over XP any day, but that's just me. But I have a couple of thoughts.
You can use right click to move files around, much like in Windows: try http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/9106 (QuickAccessCM). It's free.
You can resize column windows to the longest name in the column by double clicking the little widget which I understand moves out of screen for you at times. But along with right-clicking, there are a whole lot of keyboard shortcuts on the Mac, as there are in Windows. I thought this was an excellent list: http://www.danrodney.com/mac/index.html
Lastly, you might also consider one of several programs like Butler or Quicksilver. Just by typing the first letters of a file, url, or app, you can invoke it, move it, or whatever. I rarely have to go to the Finder any more.
Lastly, perhaps you should just do away with the finder. Give Pathfinder a try (http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/). It's a finder replacement that uses tabs instead of windows.
Jim
You can use right click to move files around, much like in Windows: try http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/9106 (QuickAccessCM). It's free.
You can resize column windows to the longest name in the column by double clicking the little widget which I understand moves out of screen for you at times. But along with right-clicking, there are a whole lot of keyboard shortcuts on the Mac, as there are in Windows. I thought this was an excellent list: http://www.danrodney.com/mac/index.html
Lastly, you might also consider one of several programs like Butler or Quicksilver. Just by typing the first letters of a file, url, or app, you can invoke it, move it, or whatever. I rarely have to go to the Finder any more.
Lastly, perhaps you should just do away with the finder. Give Pathfinder a try (http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/). It's a finder replacement that uses tabs instead of windows.
Jim
RobinS - Jun 28, 2006 - 12:07 pm
Sharing much love? I could cheerfully strangle each and every widget brained software designer at Apple......
And I would take OS X over XP any day as well. But that's got nothing to do with Apple's glaring deficiencies. These are faults that should have been corrected a decade or more ago. And the only reason is to the total lack of backbone of most Apple users. Complancey rules. I'm astounded at the time wasting navigation methods of many long time Apple users. Maybe I'm getting too left brained in my aging.
The shortcut page is superb. Many thanks.
Right click? You mean right click, then pick from the drop down menu?
(Very time consuming.)
Actually I have Butler and haven't tried it yet. Silly me......
Got Path Finder too.
But these flaws permeate many OS X compatible apps. This is Apple's influence because when in Windows these flaws in other apps vanish. And it wouldn't bother me so much if these were minor flaws. But they're not.
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This website: When I reply there should be a "rate the tech" button with a little pop up window beside the "Check Spelling" and "Submit".
Also once I've hit Submit it takes me back to the same message. ??? I should be taken back to the message list. Why would anyone want to read the message? I just wrote it. Time to move on to the other messages. Maybe the web designer worked at Apple too long.
And I would take OS X over XP any day as well. But that's got nothing to do with Apple's glaring deficiencies. These are faults that should have been corrected a decade or more ago. And the only reason is to the total lack of backbone of most Apple users. Complancey rules. I'm astounded at the time wasting navigation methods of many long time Apple users. Maybe I'm getting too left brained in my aging. The shortcut page is superb. Many thanks.
Right click? You mean right click, then pick from the drop down menu?
(Very time consuming.)
Actually I have Butler and haven't tried it yet. Silly me......
Got Path Finder too.
But these flaws permeate many OS X compatible apps. This is Apple's influence because when in Windows these flaws in other apps vanish. And it wouldn't bother me so much if these were minor flaws. But they're not.
-----------------------------------------------------
This website: When I reply there should be a "rate the tech" button with a little pop up window beside the "Check Spelling" and "Submit".
Also once I've hit Submit it takes me back to the same message. ??? I should be taken back to the message list. Why would anyone want to read the message? I just wrote it. Time to move on to the other messages. Maybe the web designer worked at Apple too long.
hixer - Jun 28, 2006 - 7:43 pm
Valid points, all. I have understood that Apple's design team does not use any focus groups or GUI testing...they listen to Jobs.
In any case, I was intrigued by your comments and decided to give Pathfinder a real try. In some ways it seems like a reasonable answer to some of your concerns.
Good luck with working around the OS dilemmas.
Jim
In any case, I was intrigued by your comments and decided to give Pathfinder a real try. In some ways it seems like a reasonable answer to some of your concerns.
Good luck with working around the OS dilemmas.
Jim
RobinS - Jun 28, 2006 - 8:00 pm
Many thanks for your input.
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