[Twilly Spree]

Now there are many quirky things about the OS X Finder and the UI and almost as many threads about it.. however I don't recall anyone mentioning this feature that seems to have been lost sometime between OS updates. Namely "selecting greyed out menu items".

But wait. Read this (from the Apple IIGS Memory Fairway - in a review about System 3.2 for the Apple IIGS)

"Another nice feature of the first IIgs Finder, which I feel would still be a welcome return to any program these days, is that greyed out menu options are still selectable. For instance, if you select 'Put Away' without having a volume selected on the desktop, a dialogue will appear and in plain English will tell you WHY you can't use this menu item and how you CAN use it. When I was a mere lad of eleven years, this made me understand the Finder a whole lot better and subsequently how to use a IIgs and Macintosh for years to come."


I don't remember this to be a feature of the Mac Finder ever - but I do remember greyed out items being selectable. I think this is a feature that should be added to the OS X Finder. It would make the UI instantly more polished and likeable.

I love the idea that you can learn about almost every aspect of the OS just by pointing and clicking.

(and yeah I am also criticizing - constructively I might add - the current Finder/OS X UI)

What do you think? Would this be a useful feature of the Finder?

[TETENAL]

[.]

[chabig]

No. I don't think this would be a useful feature. Greyed out menu items have never been selectable on the Mac. This would cause a user interface nightmare as people try to select a command and the machine keeps telling why they can't. It's better for the computer to work like this:

User- "Oh, I see this command isn't available"

than this:

User- "I want to do this"
Computer- "Sorry, that command is not available"
User- "OK, how about this?"
Computer- "Sorry, that command is not available either"
User- "This one?"
Computer- "Nope, try again"

From the Mac OS 8 Human Interface Guidelines, "When a menu item is unavailable, it is displayed in gray letters. When a user moves the pointer over the dimmed item, it isn't highlighted."

From the Mac OS X Human Interface Guidelines, "When a menu item is unavailable—because it doesn’t apply to the selected object or to the selected object in its current state, or because nothing is selected, for example—the item should appear dimmed (gray) in the menu and is not highlighted when the user moves the pointer over it."

Chris

[msuper69]

As chabig so eloquently pointed out, it is confusing and irritating to have be able to select a menu item that appears to be available and then having the application tell you it isn't. Many programmers neglect to provide a help file for their applications and then when you select help because you trying to figure something out, you instead get "Help not available for 'program'". Well, if help isn't available, DON'T TRICK US BY MAKING IT APPEAR TO BE!.

[Weyland-Yutani]

Originally Posted by chabig

No. I don't think this would be a useful feature. Greyed out menu items have never been selectable on the Mac. This would cause a user interface nightmare as people try to select a command and the machine keeps telling why they can't. It's better for the computer to work like this:

User- "Oh, I see this command isn't available"

than this:

User- "I want to do this"
Computer- "Sorry, that command is not available"
User- "OK, how about this?"
Computer- "Sorry, that command is not available either"
User- "This one?"
Computer- "Nope, try again"

From the Mac OS 8 Human Interface Guidelines, "When a menu item is unavailable, it is displayed in gray letters. When a user moves the pointer over the dimmed item, it isn't highlighted."

From the Mac OS X Human Interface Guidelines, "When a menu item is unavailable—because it doesn’t apply to the selected object or to the selected object in its current state, or because nothing is selected, for example—the item should appear dimmed (gray) in the menu and is not highlighted when the user moves the pointer over it."

Chris

As posted in the OP:
"a dialogue will appear and in plain English will tell you WHY you can't use this menu item and how you CAN use it."

sorry buddy, "read, comprehend, post" as they say.

cheers

W-Y