Leopard got some serious stage sentence during Monday ’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote , with Steve Jobs detailing 10 of the OS X 10.5 update ’s 300 features and enhancements . But the features garnering the most attention were the ones not include in previous Leopard preview : A raw background ( referring , in this case , to the overall look of the blind , menus , and the Dock ) and a new Finder .
Actually , call Leopard ’s Desktop and Findernewis a bit of a stretch . gauge from Jobs ’ demonstration and thebackground selective information on Apple ’s Web site , both appear to do work in much the same ways they have for years , just with many subtle tweak and a few new feature film . But the sum of these change is a appear - and - sense that ’s well different that OS X ’s current incarnation . In addition , Leopard will offer two novel features , Cover Flow and Quick Look , that should make it easier and more convenient to preview files .
Getting into the nuts and bolt of the changes to the Desktop and Finder will have to hold off until a final variation of Leopard make it in October . But we can still plunk a little deeper into these OS X 10.5 enhancements based on what Apple ’s disclosed so far .
A new “Desktop”
Jobs began his discussion of Leopard ’s new features by shoot a line a new Desktop , but what he was really tattle about was a group of changes to OS X ’s general interface , as well as advance to the Dock .
Leopard will feature minor ocular changes to what you see onscreen when using your Mac . The renowned Mac o menu bar is now subtly translucent ; instead of a glaring white , you ’ll see a soft see - through barroom that let your Desktop picture peek through . But it ’s not a unchanging appearance — Apple told us that the carte bar will automatically adapt its translucency and coloring material to whatever Desktop motion-picture show you select . So , for instance , if you choose a dark background , you ’ll still be able to read menu names clearly .
Another change — one that will be welcome by interface critics and users likewise — is that all window , across the OS , will have a uniform look . When it comes to Apple - created applications , you ’ll no longer see brushed - metallic element in one windowpane , Aqua toolbars in another , and smooth gray in another ; the latter now appears to betheofficial Mac OS X windowpane mode . ( Jobs also refer that the dynamic window will be more prominently ready aside from inactive windows , but he did n’t provide a demonstration of how this will be accomplished , and until we see the feature film in natural process , we ca n’t provide any more detail . )
The Dock gets a Modern appearing , as well , looking a bite like a showy political program on which image rest . Apple ’s expected eye confect can be seen , literally , when you drag out a window just above the Dock ; the windowpane is reflected off the Dock ’s glossy surface . It ’s incertain at this point how this bit of ocular razzle - dazzle might feign public presentation on lower - death Macs — if at all — but it take over watching once Leopard ’s ship date arrives .
Leopard ’s Desktop
The Dock gets another new feature in the form of Stacks . If you dredge a booklet to the Dock , a newfangled icon call a Stack — which looks , smartly enough , like a push-down stack of picture — is add to the Dock ; tick on this icon and the contents of the folder come along as a fanned - out tower of in high spirits - resolving thumbnail icon and file names . ( If there are 10 or more item in the folder , the files appear on a semitransparent grid rather . ) get through on any point to give it .
Files in a batch fan out …
Although OS X currently lease you drag a folder to the Dock and easily get at its mental object from the Dock bill of fare , Stacks make this functionality more obvious and attractive . In accession , Apple’sdescription of the featureindicates that you’re able to also make a stack by drag agroupof filing cabinet to the Dock .
… or seem in a grid if there ’s more than 10 .
Leopard ’s Dock really includes one stack from the start : Downloads . This folder , presumably stored somewhere in your home folder , is the default repository for files download from the Web or saved from tocopherol - postal service . In OS X 10.4 , downloads wind up on the Desktop by nonremittal ; this Leopard feature will trim down on Desktop clutter while making it easier to settle file . Even more useful , as files are download , the stack ’s Dock icon shine that progress . ( Apple specifically singles out Safari downloads ; we do n’t know whether this optical - advancement indicant works with other browsers . )
A new Finder
The Finder ’s sidebar
As with the Desktop , call the Finder “ newfangled ” is another way to say “ a new flavour and a few fresh features . ” For exercise , Finder windows , in plus to getting the universal smooth - hoary look , also will frolic a remodeled sidebar . Looking much like the odd - hand source list iniTunes 7 , these sidebars attend clean and include logical chemical group of items : twist ( grueling drives , compact disk , DVDs ) , Shared ( internet volumes and computer ) , Places ( leaflet and files on your hard drive ) , and Search For . Like the Playlists detail in iTunes , you’re able to collapse any of these groups to obliterate their contents .
The Search For group in the sidebar include any public eye searches you ’ve preserve , as well as several default searches that put up an instant list of equate files : Today , Yesterday , Last Week , Images , Movies , and Documents . A welcome improvement is that Spotlight in Leopard can look for other local Macs and remote server ( although it ’s not clear if this feature of speech requires that the other figurer be running Spotlight , as well , to create a searchable index ) . Another improvement , not refer by Jobs in this keynote butdescribed online(and limn last August ) is the power to use simple syntax in Spotlight to perform Boolean searches — and , or , or not — as well as to research for precise phrase , dates , and date roam .
The Shared mathematical group provides an prosperous path to get at computers on your local meshing . Listed are any computing equipment — MacsandWindows personal computer — that are share file , as well as any Macs with screen - share-out enabled . Hopefully this approach will forge well than Tiger ’s connection web browser , which has n’t always accurately listed the other Macs on your local connection .
Even right , a new feature prognosticate Back To My Mac practice Apple’s . macintosh serviceto ease connections between removed Macs . For instance , if you have a Mac at home and another at oeuvre , each will keep .Mac inform of its current IP address ; each will then appear in the other ’s Shared inclination in Finder sidebars , rent you connect — or , even more impressively , command via screen sharing — with a clink . We do n’t yet know how well this lineament will wreak once you shed firewalls and routers into the mixture , but if Apple can find a way to make such connective feasible , it will be a pregnant step forth .
Finally , Leopard ’s Finder sweep up another ocular feature of iTunes — Cover Flow . useable as a young horizon option — along with the current List , Icon , and Column views — Cover Flow lets you quick turn over through previews of the files in a folder , in Spotlight resultant role , or in a saved Spotlight search . These previews are n’t static icons ; they ’re live preview of a document ’s content . In fact , you could even cycle through the pages of a PDF or the slide in a Keynote presentment , or even play video justly there in the Finder windowpane .
The Cover Flow view in Leopard ’s viewfinder
Although these change should make it well-off to work out with files , there ’s at least one possible drawback : With Finder and iTunes windows depend so remarkably standardised — assume neither undergoes further changes between now and October — it may be more hard to separate such windows aside when trying to promptly get across on one or the other . ( There ’s something to be said for dissimilar type of window looking alittle bitdifferent . ) But I ’m going to reserve judgment on this iTunes - same Finder - windowpane appearance until I have a fortune to apply the fresh Finder extensively .
Better previews
The other major interface betterment touted by Jobs Monday is called Quick Look . Basically an enhanced preview , Quick Look lets you immediately access a live trailer of a file without having to open an program . For example , you may regard a with child , readable prevue of a PDF Indian file , and flip through that file ’s varlet , right in the Finder . In the display case of a movie or audio file , you’re able to watch the video recording or listen to the audio with one click . And if the default preview is still too small , another sink in lets you preview the file at full - screen size .
Quick Look
Quick Look patronage many vulgar file type — including text , epitome , movies , PDFs , and Word and Excel document — out of the boxful ; developers can supply plugins that sum Quick Look financial backing for their own document . This feature of speech should be specially useful for previewing photo and movie files , but it will also come in ready to hand whenever you need to take — well — aquick lookat a file without launching another app .
Like many of Leopard ’s new feature article , Quick Look is uncommitted in many other place around the OS . For case , you may expend Quick Look while participating in an iChat AV conference to show other participant a trailer of a file . likewise , when using Time Machine , Leopard ’s backup scheme , Quick Look gives you a utilitarian preview of files before recovering them .
More to come?
It ’s jolly much a given that each major new release of Mac OS X includes a facelift , and Leopard is no exception . But while some Leopard tweaks — such as the appearance of the Modern Dock and card - bar — seem to be little more than a raw flavor of eye confect , the young Finder and Desktop do declare oneself some welcome changes and utilitarian new feature .
What Apple did n’t tattle about is how much of the Modern Finder is actually newfangled under the lens hood . Although it seems those hop for a from - the - earth - up revisal will be disappointed , we desire Leopard ’s Finder at least reparation some of the current Finder ’s deficiencies , such as spinning beach ball when net volumes ca n’t be found and windows that do n’t always mull over their current content . And we ’re also hopeful that the young Spotlight feature in Leopard mean that Spotlight is getting at least a few steps nearer to its potential .
We ’ll have to wait and see ; October is only four calendar month by .
[ Dan Frakes is a elderly editor atMacworldand the senior reviews editor forPlaylist . ]
