[Ghoser777]

Share your things you wish you could do with your computer!

1) "Split screen" in browsers. In addition to tabs, I'd like to have two tabs open simultaneously in the same browser window so I can look at information side by side. I do this all the time with two separate browser windows.

2) Drag-and-drop save. When I make a new text file in TextEdit, I tend to open a Finder window where I want to save the document first (so I can see what's already in there). Then when I'm ready to save it, I have to re-navigate again through a save dialog. I'd rather be able to drag-and-drop to that Finder window and have it save right there.

[irunat2am]

I wish I could Shift+F12 on my g4 powerbook, and have a loaded macbook pro pop out of my combo drive.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally Posted by Ghoser777 

I'd rather be able to drag-and-drop to that Finder window and have it save right there.

You kind of can, but backwards. Drag the folder to the sidebar, then it will be waiting for you in the sidebar of the save dialog

[MM-o4]

print out what ever I was thinking. that would be handy (btw I'mma graphic designer)

-MM-

[TheoCryst]

Originally Posted by Ghoser777 

2) Drag-and-drop save. When I make a new text file in TextEdit, I tend to open a Finder window where I want to save the document first (so I can see what's already in there). Then when I'm ready to save it, I have to re-navigate again through a save dialog. I'd rather be able to drag-and-drop to that Finder window and have it save right there.

Wish granted! After navigating to the desired directory in the Finder, open the Save dialog in TextEdit (or your app of choice). At the top of the Finder window is a small folder icon next to the directory's name. Drag and drop that to the save dialog, and POOF! It instantly navigates to that folder.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Oh yeah, that too. That's especially handy to save to places you can't navigate to like inside bundles or invisible folders

[Ghoser777]

Sweet!

[Dakarʒ]

Go to the bathroom.

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by Ghoser777 

1) "Split screen" in browsers. In addition to tabs, I'd like to have two tabs open simultaneously in the same browser window so I can look at information side by side. I do this all the time with two separate browser windows.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4287

Anything is possible with Firefox.

I'd like Safari to follow the same conventions that Apple implements in its own OS - you know, where click-and-hold brings up a context menu? Sure would be nice.

[zro]

Since when has click and hold worked? OmniWeb is the only app I use that I'm aware of still doing this. I like it.

I wish dragging text would shift keyboard focus to the interface widget you want to drop it on.

[zro]

Doh! I knew that...

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by zro 

Since when has click and hold worked?

It works in the Dock and pretty much nowhere else. That's all I can figure she must be thinking of.

[shifuimam]

I suppose I just don't use my iBook enough. Click-and-hold works in the Dock, DragThing, FireFox, and I think maybe the MS Office Apps.

So then I'll change what I wrote - I wish that OS X would implement click-and-hold to bring up ever-useful context menus, since Apple is so unbelievably resistant to The Evil Right Moust Button(tm).

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

I suppose I just don't use my iBook enough. Click-and-hold works in the Dock, DragThing, FireFox, and I think maybe the MS Office Apps.

Neither Firefox nor Office normally pops up a contextual menu when I hold in the mouse. Maybe you have some extension installed?

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

So then I'll change what I wrote - I wish that OS X would implement click-and-hold to bring up ever-useful context menus, since Apple is so unbelievably resistant to The Evil Right Moust Button(tm).

How resistant is Apple? As far as I'm aware, all their current desktop computers include a five-button mouse and their laptops include two-finger tapping for right-click.

[highstakes]

Wish I could watch TV without any extra equipment or fee's

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Neither Firefox nor Office normally pops up a contextual menu when I hold in the mouse. Maybe you have some extension installed?

The only extension I have installed with Firefox is Adblock Plus. I can click-and-hold anywhere to bring up a context menu. I use it most frequently to quickly open links in new tabs. I'm using Firefox 1.5.xx on OS X 10.3.9.

How resistant is Apple? As far as I'm aware, all their current desktop computers include a five-button mouse and their laptops include two-finger tapping for right-click.

I've used the mighty mouse, and it's the most awkward thing for right-clicking. Two-fingered right clicking is not included on older laptops (including my iBook). It would be nice if it was an addition to the OS software, as opposed to a hardware change.

Apple is halfway willing to implement right-clicking. They have a quasi-right click with a funky touch-sensitive interface on an external mouse, and they've put it on their newer laptops. How hard is it to just add a second mouse button?

I find Apple users' resistance to conventional right-clicking somewhat amusing. Apple's making it more difficult to implement than it should be.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

The only extension I have installed with Firefox is Adblock Plus. I can click-and-hold anywhere to bring up a context menu. I use it most frequently to quickly open links in new tabs. I'm using Firefox 1.5.xx on OS X 10.3.9.

Oh, I don't have Firefox 1 to test with. Maybe you can click and hold for a contextual menu there. It doesn't work in Firefox 2 on any of the computers I've tried it on.

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

I've used the mighty mouse, and it's the most awkward thing for right-clicking.

I agree. That's why I've bought a third-party mouse — an option Apple fully supports.

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

Two-fingered right clicking is not included on older laptops (including my iBook). It would be nice if it was an addition to the OS software, as opposed to a hardware change.

Agreed, but I guess if the hardware can't do it, there's not much Apple can do now except release better hardware. Incidentally, have you tried Sidetrack?

Anyway, I hate physical right mouse buttons on laptops. They're extremely awkward in every possible way. I'd rather just control-click.

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

Apple is halfway willing to implement right-clicking.

Apple fully supports right-clicking. I right-click the day away with my $10 Logitech mouse. What Apple doesn't want is multiple confusing buttons on its out-of-the-box hardware, and they're right to do this. Non-expert computer users are often confused by the right- and left-click thing. People who want it have the option of either using the Mighty Mouse's flexibility or buying a mouse that suits their needs.

[Luca Rescigno]

Just earlier today I was classifying all these trance songs that are out of order, trying to figure out which ones are standalone tracks and which are linked up with other tracks, and I was thinking it would be amazing to be able to manipulate data in a spatial manner. I'm thinking Minority Report type stuff here.

The way I had it set up was an Excel spreadsheet with the names of the tracks in various columns, depending on whether they were standalone tracks or if they clearly "linked up" with other tracks at the beginning, end, or both. Then another part of the spreadsheet has the tracks that I know are linked together. It's like a big audible puzzle, but the problem is that I have to constantly go back and forth between iTunes and Excel, looking up track names and skipping to the beginning and end.

Ideally, I'd be able to pick up a track, drag it to a position before or after another track, and click on the point where they link up for it to play the transition. The simplest possible way of doing this might be possible with computers today - I could see linking certain cells with the song data, and then somehow telling Excel to switch to the next cell over and start playing when the current one finishes playing the song. I have no idea how to actually do that, but I'm sure it would be possible somehow. It might require a special, custom-made application.

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Oh, I don't have Firefox 1 to test with. Maybe you can click and hold for a contextual menu there. It doesn't work in Firefox 2 on any of the computers I've tried it on.

Damn, that sucks. Yet another reason why I'm holding off upgrading to 2.0 as long as I can. I haven't upgraded in Windows, either.

I agree. That's why I've bought a third-party mouse — an option Apple fully supports.

They do, but I'd rather have a two-button mouse built in to my laptop. I don't like trying to use a mouse with a laptop when I'm traveling, or even just sitting on the couch surfing the 'net.

Agreed, but I guess if the hardware can't do it, there's not much Apple can do now except release better hardware. Incidentally, have you tried Sidetrack?

...except that Apple is showing themselves to be really resistant to releasing better hardware that has straightforward implementation of right clicking - the right mouse button.

The hold-to-right-click should be able to be implemented in the OS, though. That's still more efficient than ctrl+click, which requires two hands.

I haven't tried that Sidetrack app. It looks like it should be compatible with my clamshell iBook - I will definitely give it a look. Thanks!

Anyway, I hate physical right mouse buttons on laptops. They're extremely awkward in every possible way. I'd rather just control-click.

In my experience, the mighty mouse's right-click mechanism is far more awkward. When using my iBook directly after using my Dell D620, I find my thumb automatically clicking on the right half of the trackpad button, thinking it will right-click. I find right-clicking with laptop mouse/trackpad buttons pretty simple. Not only that, but it would even be better if only one part of the right half of Apple's large trackpad button were separate for right clicking.

Apple fully supports right-clicking. I right-click the day away with my $10 Logitech mouse.

Yes, context menus exist, and for that I am thankful. Apple's hardware, however, has really nonstandard right-clicking support.

What Apple doesn't want is multiple confusing buttons on its out-of-the-box hardware, and they're right to do this.

I disagree. Any Windows user coming to a Mac will likely be more confused by the weird right-click implementation in Apple's hardware. Most people I work with are not computer power users, but use context menus on a daily basis ... especially in office applications, where you can easily access things like the dictionary, formatting, table properties, etc, from right where you're working (rather than having to move up to a menu to do what you need to do). I have also seen users who right-click on accident, and simply click outside the menu and keep working.

If users are actually confused by more than one button, I think they've got deeper issues than Mac vs. Windows. I know that using a Logitech MX1000 for the first time is probably pretty confusing. But using a simple two-button mouse with a scroll wheel? Most nine-year-olds know how to use such a "confusing" device.

Non-expert computer users are often confused by the right- and left-click thing. People who want it have the option of either using the Mighty Mouse's flexibility or buying a mouse that suits their needs.

The Mighty Mouse is completely inflexible. You have to hover a finger (which strains one's muscles and is awkward) to right click! Why not have two independently-clicking mouse buttons that can be configured to both left click or have true left/right click functionality?

When Apple first came on the scene, the one-button mouse was simple. It was probably better back then. But now? Context menus are an integral part of efficient computing in today's world. In Windows Explorer, I can transfer files, rename files, open files, change file properties, and a number of other things with one simple context menu. Context menus allow for one-handed computing, which is absolutely necessary when you're juggling a phone or your lunch while working on your computer.

Apple's resisting the context menu as much as possible. Even now, in OS X, Finder's context menu is all but completely useless. And in other applications, like the Office Suite or FireFox, the context menu is an integral pat of efficiently using the software - especially with Firefox and its thousands of extensions.

Consider this:



Now. I am aware that not everyone has 32 extensions they use on a regular basis in Firefox, but I do. I can quickly do things like clean out a site's cookies (cruical when testing an application that is part of my job, which doesn't delete cookies after logging off the application), download everything from a site (great for nabbing multiple images or sound files on a page), switch to a different proxy (work uses two and I use none at home), or resize my window (necessary for making sure websites I design are 1024x768-friendly, since I do my work on a 20" widescreen that runs at 1680x1050). I don't have to contort my hand into any weird ctrl+__ combinations, and I can do it all one-handed.

Not only that, but if I'm trying to do work on a huge display (30" cinema display, anyone?), it gets old really quickly to have to constantly move my mouse way up to the top of a high-resolution screen just to get a menu. It's hella easier to right-click right where I am and get to what I want.

Apple has trained its users to believe that context menus are a bad thing, when in reality, they're quick, easy, and simple. In trying to cater to the absolute lowest common denominator of computer users, Apple is ignoring the rest of us. I've mentioned before how atrocious the Finder is for power users who want more control over managing their files. I know that the Finder is simple and oversimplified, because it's designed to meet the simplest of the stupid users - but there's no option for those of us who want more.

It's just disappointing. I would love for someone to develop a replacement trackpad assembly for Apple laptops that has two mouse buttons. I'd buy one in an instant for my iBook.

[zro]

You can enable click-hold in Firefox 2 through about:config. Did not know that. Thanks.

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by zro 

You can enable click-hold in Firefox 2 through about:config. Did not know that. Thanks.

Maybe that's what I did...it's been awhile since I installed Firefox on my iBook, so knows. I'm pretty sure 1.5 defaults to it, but that it can be enabled in 2.0 is quite handy.

[JoshuaZ]

Control it with my brain. Really. One day we'll have it. ONe day....

(That and think of how that would help so many people. Robotic arms, legs, eyes, ears. We have the power... we have the technology.... na na na na na na....)