Sound Off: Mac OS X pet peeves

Thumbnail previews for ALL

Thumbnail previews for ALL movie files in folder (at once) would be cool.

You can select this option for pictures, but so far I've only been able to preview movies one at a time (in columns view)...

The finder is slow to update

The finder is slow to update changes. The thumb pictures of for example of jpegs or view as icons is nice but if you modify the picture the icon doesn't change as well unless you use "save as" or move them. Related: sometimes if you change a file then try to do a new sort it doesn't pop up at the top automatically as in Windows.

I don't like the common menu

I don't like the common menu location for all applications. For users with a dual monitor setup, it is annoying to have to always go to the first monitor to perform menu options.

And for those that say, just right click, my other pet peeve is that you can't adjust the fonts and sizes of the menu!

Other than that, I really like the Mac UI.

Windows has tabbed

Windows has tabbed dialogs... I can see at a glance all of the possible modes the dialog can be in, and I know that when I click on a tab, the entire dialog will change. Apple has solved the same problem with the system preferences dialog, albeit in a different manner. But many Apple dialogs, print dialogs are a particularly annoying example, use a pull-down menu to change the entire dialog. That hides all but one possible dialog mode, and also violates the design goal of a pull down menu which is to set one parameter from a discrete set of choices. Apple needs to adopt tabbed dialog boxes, or mimic their own system preference dialog across the board.

PowerBook G4 peeve: When

PowerBook G4 peeve:
When connected to an external display, USB keyboard, and mouse, PowerBooks can be used in the 'shut' position.

It would be nice to have the '' (Apple-sign) on the back, continue to glow.
In the absence of the (plethora of) blinking LEDs that other laptops have (dell/ibm/etc/ for example), it makes for a useful "this-mac-is-powered-on" indicator.

Yes, I am aware that I could just look at the said external display :) to see if this is the case - I just don't want to wake the display (if it has been put to sleep) to check this.

Besides, a glowing white Apple on the silver powerbook is always a pleasing sight!

A very easy way to rename

A very easy way to rename many files with e.g. a number or find and replace a certain part of the file name is to make an automator workflow for renaming file names and save it as a finder plug-in. Now you can select one or more files/folders do a right click on the selected (or ctrl-click) and in the contextual menu under 'Automater' you will find the plug-in you just saved. Click it and you get a pop-up window in which you can set the criteria for how the filenames should be renamed. Click ok...finished.

Hi: My pet peeve with the

Hi: My pet peeve with the Finder, that I was surprised you didn't pick on: The Finder always seems to list files and folders alphabetically. I like the way Windows would list the Folders first then the files. I get lost in Apple's mess!

I hate the way Mac handles

I hate the way Mac handles its trash. I cannot delet a few selected files in the trash can. The only option I get is to empty trash completely. Windows on the other hand lets you selectively delet some files from its trash folder. Also the shift-delet function of windoes seems to be missing in Mac OS.

I would like to search for

I would like to search for all files, which includes drivers, system files, and the like, in 10.4 and newer, in a finder window like I was able to in 10.3. Save the dynamic searches for Spotlight in the upper-right-hand corner. I need to know where my files are, not which camera took which photo or every e-mail message with a certain word! Peace.

I have a G4 Powerbook, and I

I have a G4 Powerbook, and I hate the fact that when I shut it down, I have to wait for it to completely shut down before I can close the lid. If you don't wait, it goes into sleep mode until the next time you go to use it, open the lid, it wakes up for a second or two, and then shuts down. Confusing for the first couple of time that this happens, until you know what is going on. Call me impatient but it's a pet peeve.