Andy Laub

PDF’s post got me thinking about some of the great little aesthetic and/or functional and/or usability details you find in software (both in applications and in operating systems) these days:

• Screenshots: OS X has a couple of screenshot options. Cmd+Opt+3 takes your full screen and Cmd+Opt+4 lets you choose a specific part of your screen. These alone are perfectly well-known and very adequate, but if you press the space bar when after the latter command, it turns to a camera and you can screen shot a specific window. Furthermore, because screenshots in OS X save as PDFs on your desktop by default, it will convert a full screenshot of a multi-display setup to separate pages for each display.
• Scroll Bars: I don’t generally look too closely at OS X’s scroll bars, but if you do look at them when scrolling, you’ll notice the background does not move; rather, the outline of the scrollbar functions as a sort of mask over the background. A neat little touch as well as one that gives the effect of motion while scrolling
• Dragging: One of the things I’ve gotten incredibly used to with Mac OS is the concept of dragging your file onto things to make things happen. Drag your file into the email to create an attachment. Drag it along the bottom of the dock to see what apps will open it; let go to launch the file (and the application, if it’s not already open). Works for one file, works for 10. When I need to work on a Windows machine, this is the feature I miss the most.
• More Dragging: Guess what! This works on the internerd too! Drag a link to your desktop to make a bookmark. Drag an image to your desktop to save it. Drag a non-linked image to the address bar to view the image by itself. Internet wonderland!
• Upside-down Scrolling: By far the best little detail I’ve ever seen is Illustrator 10’s upside-down scrolling. Using a scroll mouse? Try scrolling up - it goes down! Scroll down - it goes up! Why does it do this? I don’t know! This functionality is second only to the Tools palette disappearing every time I close Illustrator. Hott!

Speaking of functionality, you’ll find that the archive now has a category list. Yee-haw!