Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!orchard From: orchard@tybalt.caltech.edu (John Orchard) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: finder irritations Message-ID: <12356@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> Date: 25 Oct 89 05:07:44 GMT References: <111900082@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <1166@key.COM> Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu Reply-To: orchard@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (John Orchard) Organization: California Institute of Technology Lines: 43 >In article <1166@key.COM> jsp@key.COM (James Preston) writes: > > In article <111900082@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> ddgg0881@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > > > >1. You have two folders open and you want to transfer or > >copy a file from one to the other. You click on the file > >you want to move and then its window comes to the front > >which totally obliterates your view of the destination folder. > >Yuck! it would have been easier to use DOS or UNIX. > > Yes! YES! YES! I am a relatively new (< 6 mos.) Mac user and this is, > without a doubt, my number one complaint in the "sounds small, but is > amazingly irritating" category. > The key to using the Finder, and Multifinder as well, is to think of it in terms of its "metaphor". Yes, a groan from the audience, because metaphor is a much abused term at Apple. Nonetheless.. The Finder is supposed to be just like a desktop. All thos windows you have open are supposed to be like pieces of paper or folders on top of that desktop. Well, some people have messy desks, and others have neat desks. When you want to look at something on a piece of paper, but only half that piece is visible, you have to pick up that piece and slide it out from under the other pieces. This is like when you click on a file and its window comes to the foreground on the Mac. The way around this on your desk is to place papers you know you will be using right next to one another without one obscuring the other. Same thing on your Mac in the Finder. Remember you can resize windows, as well as scroll them, sao this can help you out on a small screen. The important thing to remember here is that it is supposed to be like something we all recognize and have dealt with: a real desktop, and so it inevitably gets the same problems a real desktop gets. There is another solution to your problem, too, though. What you can do when you click on your file and the window pops up, covering you destination, just move your file directly onto the background (the "desktop" itself), and then into the window or folder you want. Admittedly, it is a two step process, but again, the great leap (IMHO) to an intuitive interface will unfortunately bring along baggage from the "metaphor". Hope this helps the change-over from DOS. John Orchard orchard@tybalt.caltech.edu