It set about years ago , though I ’m unsealed as to exactly when — perhaps it was System 6 , or maybe System 7 . It startle innocently enough , of course , with a simple observation : “ Hey , hold down the Option keystone , and some of the bill of fare items do different things ! ” At the time , not many the great unwashed get card ; some even thought it was “ cool ” or “ rad , ” to apply the jargon of the daytime . But in reality , it was neither of those thing .
Instead , it was the beginning of the closing of one of the Mac ’s longest - lived rules for the GUI : thou shalt not blot out carte item from the user . This is a very important convention , for it means that substance abuser always know where to look to make a program do something : in the menu bar . If you ca n’t see the mastery you want in the menu bar , then it just does n’t exist . Sadly , OS X 10.5 is the worst - yet violator of this principle , as you ’ll soon see . But first , a bit more on how Mac programs are supposed to be designed .
Publicly , at least , Apple still believe in the “ show everything ” rule , as the company state it in itsHuman Interface Guidelines(HIGs ) . This document contains all the rules that serve make it so easy to leap from one Mac program to another — by postdate the rules , all programme maneuver in a similar manner . The HIGs have long serve as the golden standard of Mac program design : if you develop a program for the Mac , you ’re expected to follow the HIGs .
That is , unless you ’re Apple , in which subject , you could make your own rules .
Contextual menus
First , consider that near - ubiquitous atomic number 76 X carte , the contextual menu . That ’s the one that appears when you Control - press something in the Finder or an lotion . Here ’s what the HIGshave to say about contextual menus :
sound like good advice , right ? In line with keeping everything seeable to the user ? Well , consider these examples …
You might consider hiding options in a contextual menu is a good way to handle innovative features for “ power users , ” but here ’s what Apple has to say on that study :
Again , this sounds like adept advice , and yet Apple chooses to wholly ignore it in OS X 10.5 . If you go to your Accounts System Preferences board and Control - tap your drug user name , what do you see ? Nothing but this little Advanced configurations contextual menu — it ’s almost like Apple ’s publically flaunt that rule , perish so far as to really inlcude “ innovative ” in the very name of the bill of fare !
Not enough ? jump off over to the Print & Fax System Preferences venire , and Control - tap any printer . One of the two pick you ’ll see is Reset Printing System — and again , this is the only pip you ’ll find this dictation .
Hiding menu commands like this is frustrating for users of all levels . There are two major problems as I see them . The first is that the user has no indication as to which objects may or may not have a contextual menu link up with them , so they ’re forced to Control - Click all over the berth to find hidden commands . The second problem , as evidenced by my iTunes event , is that the user is then forced to commend a unique locating for the command they used . Instead of remembering that Reset Play Count is in the ( for instance ) Song menu , you have to think both that it ’s a contextual card , and which item must be ascendence - clicked ( i.e. the song ) in rules of order for that carte du jour to appear .
Dock menus
Dock menus are , in a agency , like contextual menus . They appear when you penetrate and hold ( or Control - Click ) on an token in the bobtail . As with contextual menus , Apple againrecommends against concealment commandsin Dock menus :
So what do we get in OS X 10.5 ? Time Machine , whose dock icon contains the Browse Other Time Machine phonograph record command . This command can not be foundanywhereelse — not in Time Machine ’s preferences , nor within the genuine lotion . So I ’m squeeze to keep the Time Machine ikon in my dock , just for those times when I want to browse a patronage from another machine .
The Action icon
One late trend in OS X that I get particularly distressful from a GUI linear perspective is the emergence of the Action clit — that ’s the one that looks like a gear . It ’s find oneself in many spot in OS X , and with a seemingly dissimilar purpose in every billet .
count the Finder , where the Action push usually replicates the contents of the contextual fare — for many people , it ’s simply comfortable to click the button than it is to Control - snap and use the contextual menu . I do n’t really have a job with that . Where the problems start is when the Action button takes on commands that are n’t usable elsewhere .
In OS Adam 10.5 , you ’ll find such issues in two spots . First , if you turn tail a save search and want to cut the criterion used , it ’s seemingly not potential — the criterion do n’t show , and there are n’t any carte du jour item ( nor any contextual bill of fare ) that would seem to earmark editing of the saved hunting . As you ’ve pretend by now , you have to cluck the Action push , as that ’s the only spot you ’ll get the Show Search Criteria instruction .
The second trouble spot in OS X 10.5 is within Time Machine . If you desire to delete a backup — or all versions of a backup — the Action button is again the only spot you ’ll discover those bidding .
More generally , the other issue I have with the Action button is that it means so many different thing in different programs . In iTunes and iPhoto , it creates a new smart list . In Mail , it can do that ( smart mailboxes ) , but it also replicates some contextual and veritable carte du jour commands . It ’s also the only home for the Show Account Info statement . This command opens a useful sum-up window , showing all sort of stats about the selected einsteinium - mail account . It ’s quite useful , but if you ’ve never used the Action push button in Mail , you may never have experience it .
I say “ may , ” because Mail has a second GUI oddity with this mastery : it has a keyboard shortcut , even though that shortcut does n’t come out in any menu anywhere within the computer program . Just constrict Command - I any meter you want to see the Account Info windowpane — just do n’t go look for this command in any menus .
Conclusion
Although I ’m generally tickle pink to be using OS X , and well-chosen with the OS X 10.5 release , changes such as these indicate that the rules are change , even if Apple has n’t yet seen fit to change the print version of the rules . With those change , I ’m afraid we ’ll see more confusing user port , with features that are even harder for the mundane user to recover and use .
Consider in Leopard that I ’m now forced to keep the Action icon on the toolbar — even though I never practice it , except to reach the search criteria for a saved search . likewise , I have to keep Time Machine in the bob to get to its one command that I might want to use on occasion . And I need to con the various spots where hidden contextual menu exist — explanation and Print & Fax in System Preferences — that provide features I may need to get to .
To some extent , of course , software system is getting more complex and it just may not be potential to get every command into a computer menu , without make those carte unusably long . As long as there are rule about how to lead your commands to a non - menu environment , this could still work . For instance , if I knew that the Action push button would always control commands that did n’t exist on a bill of fare , then I ’d know to check off it . But as thing stand today , the “ overlook ” command can be hidden nearly anywhere , make for a very frustrating user experience .
Simply put , if Apple would do a unspoiled line at following its own rule , all users would benefit .
