Mac OS wishlist

re: dialog buttons... usually (and I can't say all the time, depends on the developer)... obviously the highlighted button is the default one for the enter key, but most of the time command-period will chose cancel.

The following is based on the existing version, Tiger/10.4, not any experience with the upcoming leopard:

AFAIK, what skabaru is often true. Also, I think key commands can be bound to them as well (when you hit command-eject, for instance, you can choose the restart, sleep, shutdown and cancel by hitting r, s, enter/return, or apple-period respectively. Regardless, I'm fairly certain this behavior is up to the developer.

As far as form fields in the browser- Safari definitely exhibits the behavior you are looking for, and once you do TAB to a pulldown, spacebar will open it up, and you can jump to you choice with arrow keys OR just start typing the first few letters of your chosen option).

This is the primary way I move around forms, and would go batshit without it. :)

Firefox doesn't appear to always allow me to tab to select boxes, but I swear sometimes it has- I don't know if it has something to do with whether or not the developer has specified a tab order and/or accessibility attributes. I honestly haven't given it much thought... I only live in Firefox for JS debugging and testing.

Regardless, this second attribute isn't a system wide "Tiger" or "Leopard" issue, it's intrinsit to the mac build of your browser of choice. And Apple's browser does it quite well. :)

I DO have a wishlist of my own, yessir, but no time for that here and now. Next time your on a Mac tho', give ye old tab + spacebar a shot when you're fillin' in forms!

peace,
B

PS: re: the tabbing thing again- if you are running tiger and Safari doesn't do this for you, I guess there's a chance I didn't have this before I downloaded the Safari 3 beta. I swear I did, but can't even remember where I left my keys last night, let alone precisely how long I've been tabbing into pull downs. :) But I swear it's been quite a while...

Bon a petit.

Again, I hate to keep holding up Windows as an example, but this is something Windows offers.

I want a more tightly integrated quicksilver. I don't ever want to use my mouse again.

Sobi -

Tabbing through select menus can be enabled for all OS X apps by setting "Full keyboard access" to the "All controls" setting in the Keyboard & Mouse system preferences (or just hit ctrl-F7).

Knowing that most companies do give free promotional stuff (other than white apple stickers). Here is my OS X Leopard wish list:

For the retail price of OS X Leopard, users should get:

- A full defragmenter
- A light version of Disk Warrior (such as no automatic stuff only the core basics)
- TechTool light (yes the one included with the APP)
- The three above inside an 6GB firewire dongle with a partial image of OS X (mainly the system folder)
- 1980s Apple multicolor stickers.
- A gift card for 1 Free iTunes song.
- A 20 x 20 poster of the big X in space.

All this would probably cost Apple less than $5 to include with their OS. The last three items are usually given away by Apple at most tours or product shows. Next time you see an Apple rep. doing a product demo at a show or at an event ask them for a free itunes song card. Each rep. carries about 50 to 80 of those cards with them.

Great ideas, Alex! I love it.

I'm not sure if it is the same in all applications, but I find that if the options in a dialogue box all start with different letters you can usually just hit the key for the first letter of the option you want. For example after listening to a podcast in itunes I hit delete to delete the file return to confirm (default selection) and then the letter m to move the file to trash (not the default selection).

My wish is that fields within Address Book cards could be linked so that I don't have to retype the same info into several people's cards who share common data (i.e. address, phone #, etc.)

I also wish that Apple would come out with a premium hardware version laptop that is waterproof and includes a built in gps receiver and sunlight readable display. Include networking ports to interconnect with popular navigation electronics systems (maybe via bluetooth or wifi?). The day they do that, a whole lot of boaters and outdoor enthusiasts will make the switch. Windows versions of these types of laptops have been available for many years!

Make it possible to log out other accounts without first switching users.

Make it possible to paste graphics into ical.

Make a black apple remote to match the black MacBook.

Incorporate a storage dock for the apple remote into the computer's body so that it is always there when you need it rather than getting lost in computer bag pockets or under piles of books and paper on the desk.

A built in ipod dock on the computer (one less cable to bother with)

How about elegant bluetooth wireless stereo headphones with built in mic for ichat / itunes / front row / etc.... as well as with bluetooth enabled phones.

I concur with the request for a more informative airport menu.

Give an option to force stack icons on the dock to display a specific image rather than most recent or 1st alphabetically.

Since I'm on a roll, why not request the ability to sync itunes libraries automatically between computers via .mac or via local network. We are allowed to listen to itunes copy protected music on up to 5 computers, so why make it so hard to do? If .mac maintained a list of music on each of the registered computers, only songs that are added to one of the computers would have to be moved and/or temporarily stored on .mac and songs purchased through the iTunes store could just be downloaded from iTunes store onto the additional computers instead of moving the file from computer to computer.

And finally,.... Please, please, please bring the iPhone to Canada soon so that I no longer have to be frustrated by the poor sync options with my Palm Treo 650.

That is very good to know! And I was working with TAB + D for delete and all the time it was just D for delete! That's practical!

Wow, these are great ideas. Nice list.

Just a small thing, but it's always baffled me that I have to go to "File > Page Setup" to choose portrait or landscape, but those settings aren't (also) found in "File > Print > Layout" or "File > Print > Paper Handling"