So it’s easier to use the computer, without having to fight it again and again and again and again whenever I’m trying to open several files when they aren’t all listed in one group, or import several files into an app when they aren’t all listed in one group, which are important things.
One suggestion was to select all these files and move them into a single folder so I could open them in one action. No. Because I’d have to move them out of their proper folders or in some cases their Calibre library, to do that…
P.S. 2 use-cases:
I want to open several books to see what each book says about certain events. I know I don’t want to open other books which match the same keywords I’m using, so I’d rather skip them.
I want to import several files into the same renaming app, so I can add (Calibrized), import them into Calibre, and then copy them onto an external disk. Labelling them (Calibrized) helps me keep track of which files I’ve imported into Calibre and which ones I’ve skipped. I also use colored tags, but they are operating-system-specific so not as reliable as I’d like. That use case is specific to my library management system, of course.
Yeah, I have found that in newer Windows too. So instead of trying to fight with the graphical user interface, you simply type in the name of the commands you want to run. It’s usually fast and easy – but still such an ironic reversion that I can’t imagine it is a sign of sensible UI design.
Oh, they had it docked. I could see the icon, but I couldn’t figure out how to click on it. That was because I’d forgotten Macs have those mechanical touch pads, not the touch-sensitive ones I’m used to. Even though I tapped pretty sharply as my frustration increased, I never hit “mechanical click” force. Since there were no buttons at the bottom of the touch pad (alternative input choice), and since I couldn’t tab across the screen and then press enter when the right icon was selected, I was completely stuck.
I’m 3/4 the way through a UX design programme. Users are not supposed to have to let go off all their preconceived notions to figure out a UI. They’re supposed to be able to apply their knowledge of how the real world (not necessarily other UIs) works to the UI and the hardware that goes with it.
I totally believe your advice to forget other UIs and learn the Mac way to use a Mac. I guess my point is that is the total opposite of the “intuitive” experience Apple claims to offer. If it were intuitive, I would have figured out how to click the icon.
Macs have settings to enable or disable tapping. To have the system enable tapping without any way to disable it makes it harder for those of us with coordination or proprioception issues. To have the system disable tapping without any way to enable it makes it harder for those with arthritis.
Some Windows machines advertise that they let users disable tapping and gestures, and then don’t let users disable tapping or gestures.
Unfortunately, the Mac system preferences for this are or used to be full of animation… I could only use that prefpane with a book blocking part of the screen.
Ah, yeah. As @MarjaE noted, tapping to click is an option. There are actually a surprising number of options, given that it’s Apple, for the touchpad. Enabling tap-to-click is the very first thing I do on any Mac because I can barely use it otherwise.
There are actually three layers of clicking on the touchpad - tap, click, and force-click. Depending on how you set the options there are actually four layers, since there are left and right clicks (though I think there’s no actual physical clicky bit, it feels like there is). Like 3D touch on the iPhone, I never actually use the clicks or force-click. I have right-click set to tapping with two fingers which is easier. I was just looking in the settings though and the force-click actually does things that I use all the time - quick look in finder, and looking up a word you highlight (also accessible from the right-click menu). But I’ll probably forget it exists.
I also switch to “normal” scroll direction because what they call “natural” is anything but. Actually, I could be wrong but I think they may have stopped making “natural” the default because I used a macbook in an Apple store recently and don’t remember being annoyed like I usually am.
I do agree that it’s disingenuous - and unhelpful, even harmful - for people to describe Apple UIs as “intuitive”, because there is a sometimes-steep learning curve. I think it could be described as something like “naturalistic”, though. Many/most complex physical, hands-on tools (including e.g. cars) are not completely obvious either. And they aren’t designed to be intuitive, or for a novice to pick them up and use them without training - they’re designed to get the job done in the best possible way. Once you know how to use the tool properly, it does feel very natural, and an extension of the self.
In this analogy, Windows is probably actually the most intuitive. It is not the most elegant tool for the job, though.
I hope to see, someday in my lifetime, some sort of cross-platform metadata/tagging feature as standard. Sure, some media or office file formats have their own proprietary metadata built-in, but there’s nothing that’s consistent, a standard part of the OS, across all file formats, readily searchable, and doesn’t break when you copy/move files (especially to/from an external drive or another system). I’m kind of amazed that hasn’t become a standard feature.
As I’ve noted more and more, the tools we are allowed to use to make more tools should not be headed to a land where we are all as fucked as that statement. It should not be going this way at all. How the fuck are we going to figure all of the things we need to figure out? If we get shoved back down into servitude to a company-town global economy, even the demographic transition could be reversed, making extinction a real possibility for the first time.
I needed to print out a document to take to the DMV.
And I needed a new printer.
So I went to Walmart, bought one. It came with a CD. Useful? To someone?
I plugged it in and connected it to my computer, to avoid dealing with WiFi.
It all started well and good. The system autorecognized the printer and downloaded the appropriate software.
But then when it came time to print there were a series of steps I had to take involving pressing a variety of buttons together that would then make the printer spew lots of printed instructions that I had to follow. And then more instructions and more. I had maybe 20 pieces of paper.
and then an hour later I got to print my one piece of paper.
Ask me what happened when i tried to connect it to my phone …if you want to get punched in the face.
Since the split into HP Enterprise and HP, Inc. anything under Inc. has gone to hell. Okay, all of those products were going to hell before the split, but it’s a just a hot mess now.
My current advisory today still stands with Brother. Laser. What ever options you see yourself needing
So I got a reply to one of the search bugs I’ve filed:
This is not just about correcting spelling. It’s also correcting word separators - we want people searching for “FooBar” to find an add-on named “Foo Bar”, or with “Foo Something Bar” in the description. There is an ongoing effort this quarter to improve search relevancy, and you’ll be able to see the results improving each week starting at the end of this week, but ultimately we can’t please everyone. There are issues filed about people expecting synonyms, common misspellings, prefixes, fuzzy matches to work as well.
And this is why we can’t have nice search tools.
You will never be able to satisfy the people who want magic search tools, and you only end up breaking once-functional search tools.
P.S. And yeah traditional search tools are hard to learn and hard to use. But they’re essential. And breaking them by substituting supposed synonyms (“Soviet” for “Russian” or “German” for “Germanic” or “nullification” for “desertion”) substituting similarly-spelled words (“Larimer” for “Arimer”), truncating words (“scroll” for “scrolljacking” or “access” for “accessibility”), splitting words, ignoring phrases, dropping search terms, etc. just makes them even harder to use.
Agreed. I used to be able to find anything on the Internet. Sometimes I’d get zero results, but then I’d refine my search terms and eventually the thing that I was looking for would appear.
Now, I put in exactly what I want, and it thinks I want something else. If I put in quotes, it gives the query more rigidity, but I also have to have the query letter-perfect for what I want to search.
I don’t begrudge them their pandering to the lowest common denominator: that’s where their money comes from. However, I wish they’d leave the old tools in place for those who can use them effectively.
I believe it was Altavista that had an advanced search option where you could select words near each other and specify how many words could separate them.
That was very useful for the Quotes made it too rigid and No Quotes was too much.
I’ve also had to go inprivate and use DDG for searches as the Great GooglyMoogly Machine has already decided what I am searching for.