Hello!
Over the past week, I have carefully observed each aspect of the program as closely as I could and have jotted down a bunch of missing features as and when I have felt the need for them. Most of these requests are inspired from the browser which I think is the best when it comes to features, Opera and some from the upcoming version of Safari in Leopard, and seen in the developer preview builds.
Those were the requests regarding the features. The following as general requests regarding the interface:
It has taken me a considerable amount of effort to consolidate all the missing features, write up this whole post and gather all the screenshots. So please try to implement as many of these features as possible, and please do reply to this thread, at least.
Thank you!
Over the past week, I have carefully observed each aspect of the program as closely as I could and have jotted down a bunch of missing features as and when I have felt the need for them. Most of these requests are inspired from the browser which I think is the best when it comes to features, Opera and some from the upcoming version of Safari in Leopard, and seen in the developer preview builds.
- Allow new tabs to be opened next to the active one. There should be a preference that allows users to opt for having the browser always open new tabs next to the active one.
Picture 01: Open new tab next to active - Blocked ads leave the containers behind, almost defeating the purpose for me. There should be a preference that when an ad gets blocked, its space on the page is not left void but filled by the other content.
Picture 02: Notice the difference? - When you select a word and right-click on it, you should get an option 'Look Up in Dictionary' or something similar to look the word up in OS X's built-in dictionary like all other cocoa apps. (Update: solved)
Picture 03: Look Up in Dictionary - Trash. Opera has a very handy trash can that saves all the closed tabs (with the history, etc.) for each session and you can quickly restore any tab if you realise you want it back. It even stores the blocked pop-ups in case you want to allow any particular one. This is a very important feature and should be present on all browsers, IMHO.
Picture 04: Trash - Opera has another handy feature called auto-reloading of pages. Basically, you right click on any page and set it to auto-reload at a fixed interval. It is good for keeping track of news sites, etc.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/7449/autoreloadys6.png
Picture 05: Auto-reload. - There is no session restore. There should be an option to resume browsing rom where you left off when you launch OmniWeb. Plus, there should also be a crash restoration option. I always used to leave a few tabs open in Opera and then quit it so that I could resume my work when I again launched it, but I cannot do so on OmniWeb. Plus, if the browser crashes for some reason, all my tabs get lost. (Update: solved)
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9...erencessn7.png
Picture 06: Startup preferences
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3...pdialogny2.png
Picture 07: Start-up dialog - Double-clicking somewhere in the tab drawer should open a new tab there.
- OmniWeb should display the last viewed tab on closing an active tab, not the one right after or before it in the tab drawer.
- In Opera, there is a feature where you can select 'Search in Page' from the search drop down menu (I keep it as the default) and type in whatever you want to search on the page. Opera searches for it as-you-type, instantly highlighting all occurrences of the search term and taking you to the first one. This is an extremely useful feature for me and would love to see this in OW.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/2...dinpagefm2.png
Picture 08: Find in page - There should be an option to maximise the window. I like the way OmniWeb adjusts the size of the browser according to the webpage (like Safari), but there should also be an option to maximise the browser. This does not mean you should change the current method, but just that an extra option would be welcome for webpages that can scale to any resolution.
- There is no direct RSS support. This is almost a bug.
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/2...nsafarirf2.png
Picture 09: Open RSS Feed in Safari - Safari, in Leopard, will sport an option to merge all open tabs across various windows into one window. I think it is a great feature and should make an appearance in OmniWeb too.
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6...windowsng9.jpg
Picture 10: Merge All Windows - 'Check Spelling as You Type' should be enabled by default in a new installation.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3...youtypetd9.png
Picture 11: Check Spelling as You Type - Firefox 2 has this very cool feature. Suppose you enter 'omniweb crashes' in the address bar, Firefox will automatically search Google for you and will take you to the most appropriate webpage. If there is no webpage appropriate enough, it takes you to the Google results page. It is amazing because FireFox is never wrong. When it takes you to the webpage it thinks is the right one, it is always the one you were looking for - and when it takes you to the Google results page, it is almost a guarantee that the first result was not the one you were looking for. If this can be implemented in OmniWeb, I would love it. (Update: solved)
- Please make the tabs spring loaded so that we can drag text, links, images, etc. from a page onto any tab in the drawer, that tabs opens and then we can drag the thing we are holding onto that page.
- "I'd like to see the bookmark folders made spring loaded. If I want to bookmark the page I'm on and I want it to go in a sub folder, what I currently have to do is drag it into the main folder, then go into the bookmark organization screen and manually move it to the appropriate sub folder." (Requested by 'rmathes'.)
Those were the requests regarding the features. The following as general requests regarding the interface:
- Every sort of resizing and shifting should be animated. When you click on the zoom button, the browser should smoothly slide to the new size. When the zoom button is pressed and the browser does not have enough space on one side, it should slide to the other side to make space. At present, these two actions are static. I am talking about the way the QuickTime Player resizes and shifts around.
- Change the icon. It is subjective but the current Earth icon looks very drab and simple. Couldn't you think of something more flashy?
It has taken me a considerable amount of effort to consolidate all the missing features, write up this whole post and gather all the screenshots. So please try to implement as many of these features as possible, and please do reply to this thread, at least.
Thank you!
Last edited by aryayush; 2006-12-28 at 09:01 AM..