[comp.sys.mac.system] Last minute Finder 7 requests

t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu (03/02/91)

I want to make a few last requests to be added to Finder 7 before it ships. I
love the new Finder but it is still a little rough in a couple of spots. I
believe these changes could be made without having to include them in any
documention other than to add them to the Finder Shortcut menu dialogs. Most
people don't read the manual
 
#1 - Pop up the appropriate help balloon when the option-shift keys are down
and the balloon help is off. This makes getting help in single instances much
more friendly.

#2 - Option-shift-drag to copy an alias of the selected file to the location
dragged to. I find I am constantly creating an alias, dragging a copy to the
location I want, and then deleting the origional.

#3 - Add one more click shortcut to the "List" views. Put a small icon on the
left of the row where the other column headings are that can be clicked on.
Clicking there would switch to an icon view. And conversely in the "Icon" view
put a "List" icon which you could click in to switch to the list view.

#4 - Add one more checkbox to the Icon section of the "Views" control panel.
That item is: "Show file info in header" This would work very similar to the
"Show disk info in header" checkbox in the List section. In the Icon views it
would display file information in the window header when you clicked on a file.
For multiple files selected it would give you some summary information like how
many files, how many nested folders, how big is the total selection, etc. For
single file selections you don't need to display the name because you see it
with the icon. You could display size, kind, date, and version. That would fit
in the average window size.

#5 - WHERE'S THE CREDITS???? For golley-gee-sakes Gomer, there must be a bunch
of wonderfully talented people who have worked on the System and Finder. Why
not let us know who they are? You managed to do it right in HyperCard 2.0.
Don't you folks talk to each other or have any kinds of standards for things
like that?

Tony Jacobs
Center for Engineering Design
University of Utah
t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu

PS - Folks, if you like these suggestions, lets hears so. Better still let
Apple know!

francis@uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) (03/02/91)

In article <1991Mar1.212808.20312@fcom.cc.utah.edu> t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu writes:

   #2 - Option-shift-drag to copy an alias of the selected file to the location
   dragged to. I find I am constantly creating an alias, dragging a copy to the
   location I want, and then deleting the origional.

Naive question time: can't you create the alias and just drag it?

--
/=============================================================================\
| Francis Stracke		| My opinions are my own.  I don't steal them.|
| Department of Mathematics	|=============================================|
| University of Chicago		| Until you stalk and overrun,	     	      |
| francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu	|  you can't devour anyone. -- Hobbes 	      |
\=============================================================================/

bskendig@set.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) (03/02/91)

In article <FRANCIS.91Mar1192348@arthur.uchicago.edu> francis@uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke) writes:
>In article <1991Mar1.212808.20312@fcom.cc.utah.edu> t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu writes:
>>#2 - Option-shift-drag to copy an alias of the selected file to the location
>>dragged to. I find I am constantly creating an alias, dragging a copy to the
>>location I want, and then deleting the origional.
>
>Naive question time: can't you create the alias and just drag it?

Yes, but nine out of ten times I find myself doing the following:

 - Select the file and hit "Make Alias".
 - Drag the alias to a new location.
 - Click on the alias name, wait for my SE to acknowledge the click,
     and remove the word "alias".

Now, this process would be made much more effortless (?) if I could just:

 - Hold down shift-option and drag the file to a new location to alias it.

In fact, I can't think of any cases where you'd actually want there to
be an alias of a file in the same exact folder as the original file;
in this regard, the effect of "Make Alias" is a bit less useful than
the effect of "Duplicate File", even though "Duplicate File" lets you
achieve the same thing by option-dragging while there's no shortcut
for "Make Alias".

Just an ounce of user-friendliness...  ;)

     << Brian >>

| Brian S. Kendig      \ Macintosh |   Engineering,   | bskendig             |
| Computer Engineering |\ Thought  |  USS Enterprise  | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU
| Princeton University |_\ Police  | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET         |
"It's not that I don't have the work to *do* -- I don't do the work I *have*."

fry@zariski.harvard.edu (David Fry) (03/03/91)

In article <1991Mar1.212808.20312@fcom.cc.utah.edu> t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu writes:
>I want to make a few last requests to be added to Finder 7 before it ships. I
>love the new Finder but it is still a little rough in a couple of spots. I
>believe these changes could be made without having to include them in any
>documention other than to add them to the Finder Shortcut menu dialogs. Most
>people don't read the manual
> 
...

>#2 - Option-shift-drag to copy an alias of the selected file to the location
>dragged to. I find I am constantly creating an alias, dragging a copy to the
>location I want, and then deleting the origional.

Yes, definitely. I think this problem can be quite annoying.


David Fry                               fry@math.harvard.EDU
Department of Mathematics               fry@huma1.bitnet
Harvard University                      ...!harvard!huma1!fry
Cambridge, MA  02138