Friday, January 6, 2012

Dear Apple—Getting the Interface Wrong

I wish to find and open a file—say Switch, a useful program for doing things with sound files. My application folder contains about a hundred and fifty applications and folders, arranged in alphabetical order. To simplify the search for the one I want, I start by pressing S on my keyboard.

The window now shows, as its bottommost file, Safari, the first application that starts with S. Since the file listed at the bottom of the window is the first one starting with S, every other application whose name begins with that letter is now off screen. To get to the file I want, I will have to scroll further down.

Apple is famous for the elegance of its user interface, but in this case it got it wrong. Pressing S ought to either put Safari at the top of the window or System Preferences, the last S file, at the bottom. Either of those would put Switch where I want it—visible.

Until Apple makes that simple fix, I will simply have to remember, when I want to find Switch, to press T.

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