"The IndieHIG Wiki is a place where developers and UI designers can come together to create a new set of Human Interface Guidelines to supplement Apple's guidelines. Apple has neglected to update their HIG with modern UI designs and controls, so developers have been forced to replicate these UI elements on their own to keep their applications from looking dated. Since each developer has slightly different implementations of these elements, it has resulted in a fairly inconsistent look and feel for Mac OS users." Meanwhile, for the first time in over three months, Apple is asking its developer community to begin testing and providing feedback on a forthcoming update to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
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Member since:2006-03-14
You can press Cmd+Q on any app to quit it, Cmd+H to hide, Cmd+, to view preferences (my favourite), the Edit and Window menus are consistent. When you go back to Windows, one thing that really bugs you is that this behavioural consistency is lacking: Whilst you can use Alt+F4 (mostly) and Win+M, is preferences under Tools > Options, View > Preferences, or worse File > Preferences?
I don't think you made a good example here. The quit and hide commands in OS X are handled by the OS, a software developer didn't have to code it to behave that way. Similarly, ALT+F4 in Windows behaves that way naturally.
MacOS X software can have the same pitfalls of menu inconsistencies the same way Windows programs are flawed as you described. For instance, most OS X programs have the "preferences" menu item in the menu that has the program name. Firefox for OS X use to put the options menu item under Tools, I think they finally moved it to the proper place. Mozilla has the preferences menu item in Edit.
Closing and hiding app windows is a universal action, that's why both OSes have keyboard shortcuts that are universal to all programs. However not all programs handle user options/preferences the same way, or any action beyond the basics. That's where menu inconsistencies occur, and you haven't really proved that menus are better organized in OS X versus Windows. The OS has no control over how developers arrange their menus or keyboard shortcuts. In some cases those natural functions can be overridden by the software developer.
Member since:2005-11-10
I'm sorry but that is just innaccurate. I just downloaded Firefox 1.0 for Mac and Preferences is in the Application menu where it should be. When you create a program in XCode, a default menu layout is provided for you (no such thing in VS) with the Application, Edit, Window and Help menu. In general, and overal, Mac applications have far less menu inconsistancies than Windows counterparts - fact.
Member since:2005-07-22
Member since:2005-07-06
When you go back to Windows, one thing that really bugs you is that this behavioural consistency is lacking: Whilst you can use Alt+F4 (mostly) and Win+M, is preferences under Tools > Options, View > Preferences, or worse File > Preferences? Why is there no shortcut for it?
Neither OS is a panacea of consistency, both have some huge areas-of-omission. For Windows, it's the keyboard shortcuts and menu locations of common items. With MacOS X, it's the text manipulation commands - admittedly something that only power users care about, but the lack of consistency makes it quite frustrating to do extended text editing in OS X. In some text fields, holding down shift and pressing an arrow key extends the selection in that direction; in others, it doesn't. Sometimes the Home and End keys take you to the beginning or end of a line (or beginning/end of the document, if using a modifier); sometimes the up/down arrows perform that role. Some apps have additional modifiers that can be used with Shift to select an entire word to the right/left of the insertion point (or to select to the beginning/end of a line), but it's far from consistent. Whereas in Windows, those keyboard shortcuts tend to work the exact same way, in nearly all programs.
Member since:
2005-11-10
Almost all OS X apps respond the same though. They may look slightly different, but they are very consistent when it comes to productivity. You can press Cmd+Q on any app to quit it, Cmd+H to hide, Cmd+, to view preferences (my favourite), the Edit and Window menus are consistent. When you go back to Windows, one thing that really bugs you is that this behavioural consistency is lacking: Whilst you can use Alt+F4 (mostly) and Win+M, is preferences under Tools > Options, View > Preferences, or worse File > Preferences? Why is there no shortcut for it? Then there's the whole system-menus, Office-XP menus, Office 2003 menus, the soon to come Office 2007 menus, and every half baked owner-drawn menus to emulate them...
Edited 2006-12-22 12:37