Replies

"My Dock is auto-hide... and I drag and drop to and from it all the time. Perhaps you don't really know how to use a Mac?"

Or it may be that their OS version doesn't support it.

".. but that was a choice that Adobe made.. Universal dragging and dropping is something that the Mac does very well."

That's good to hear, though I prefer what you call the 'option click.' And yes, I know that can be done in Macs now - I use it with the graphic tablet stylus (Wacom, on their Macs and on my PC) and, I'll admit, the function of the option click in the Mac tends to be frustrating (and with limited functionality), but it may just be their Wacom tablets - I'm using the Bamboo, cheaper, but it seems to work better).

"There are a number of Finder replacements including Quicksilver."

There are tons of little explorer replacements like that for Windows - I stay away from them, they're interesting little gimmicks, but who cares? These are not shell replacements. Litestep, for example, replaces explorer.exe with litestep.exe in the boot menu, runs much lighter than explorer.exe and is far more configurable.

"Yes, you can. I can understand that the University might not allow you to do that to their computers, though."

Well that's news. I looked it over and I see they're many limitations, not the least of which is the small number of themes available. There are literally thousands of Stardock Windowblinds themes - and it doesn't matter what version of Windows you run them on. But it's nice to see that the Mac is making it possible for their users to set-up their own workspaces they way they, the users, want it.

"But why would you want to do those things? ... a custom pointer that's a swinging gorilla..."

If that's you're notion of a custom cursor, I don't blame you - I'd be loath to use one too. Cursor FX themes. They're not all good, in fact, only a few are, but the ones that are, are. And very usable, imo.

"You can use Command Left and Right arrow to move to the beginning and ending of a line."

Thanks! Every Mac user I've asked, including my teachers - who were ostensibly supposed to be teaching me how to use the Mac - hadn't been able to answer that. So really, thanks (though it's still less convenient then simply pressing 'home' or 'end').

In the end, I'd say the many things they've done (Mac), such as add support for 'option clicks,' have made the Mac much more usable, but the many quirks still steer me away.

I suppose those quirks are beloved by the Mac user the way the old Porsche's quirks are beloved by the Porsche driver but which, to everyone else, are just quirks.

For me, I've disliked Windows, but disliked the Mac more. Now I continue to dislike Windows and dislike Macs just a little less then before, but can use it if needed.

Thanks for your sincere and considered response, btw.

Or it may be that their OS version doesn't support it.

It's worked that way on all OSX Macs from version 0, so they may have locked your Dock which is possible with a limited account.

So really, thanks (though it's still less convenient then simply pressing 'home' or 'end').

'Home' and "end" do what they were originally designed to do: go to the beginning or to the end of a document.

a custom pointer that's a swinging gorilla..."

If that's you're notion of a custom cursor, I don't blame you - I'd be loath to use one too.

Not "my notion", just an example of one I ran across on a client's machine, that while cute, was less than useful. ;^)>

Thanks for your sincere and considered response, btw.

You're entirely welcome.

Amusingly, it’s Windows that’s broken in that respect. Pretty much every OS *but* Windows has always used “Home” to take you to the top of a document or screen (where appropriate), and “End” to take you to the, well, END or bottom of a document or screen.

As someone who started off using then-old UNIX terminals in grade school and had used everything else from a Commodore PET to a NeXT Cube, I find Windows’ use of Home and End to be extremely frustrating when navigating through a long document. Where’s the command to go to the top of a document from deep within it? Alt-Some-Weird-Not-Memorable-Code-Other-Than-Just-Pressing-The -Home-Button?

That said, if you’re on a single-line entry field on a Mac (in anything other than FireFox or other program that doesn’t use the built in input handlers), such as a web browser’s address entry field, you can press the up arrow to go to the start of the line, or the down arrow to go to the end of the line. Simple. Wish Windows had it.