[Forrest]

Hey Ken, a quick note on "we just want to make sure that everyone knows that they should contact us directly whenever they actually need a response from us." You may wish to disable your ability to receive PM's, otherwise people may think they're following a support channel.

[bethkatz17582]

Originally Posted by Plainsman

I hope the new unified toolbar look in 5.5 is an option (enable/disable) rather than the rule.

Disabling unified toolbar isn't an option that I could find in the Toolbar preferences of OW5.5sp4. And the gray of the active OW window is just a tad darker than the inactive Mail window.

[Ken Case]

Yes, this is exactly the same as what you see when you have multiple Mail windows open, but perhaps I'm the only person who does that.

I'm not sure whether this helps enough, but I thought I'd point out some visual cues which indicate the active Unified window:

* Inactive windows have stripes.

* Inactive windows dim the title and URL icon, as well as the hide/show toolbar control in the upper right corner.

* Inactive windows have clear window controls (close, minimize, zoom), rather than colored ones.

Does that help?

[Forrest]

Ken, you provided similar responses as I sent to someone on the mailing list. I'm filling in his responses...

Originally Posted by Ken Case

* Inactive windows have stripes.

I have always tried to use some type of theme to get rid of those ugly pin stripes and will continue to do so (even though the themes usually make it more difficult to discern the key window).

* Inactive windows have clear window controls (close, minimize, zoom), rather than colored ones.

have used Graphite since day one—I hate being distracted by the jelly beans.

I also brought up the shadow differences. The poster replied:
sometimes turn off shadows on my old G4 I in a trade for perceived speed.

My take on all that is, there's a fine line between "apparent" and "distracting." If the button colors are a distinguishing mark, it's up to the user to choose if it's "apparent" or "distracting."

I like the graphite buttons for a while, and the colored ones were a bit odd. However, after using them as color for a while, I have grown used to them.

I'm also not a fan of catering to issues created by haxies.

[bethkatz17582]

Although it bothers me that there isn't much difference, I haven't actually been confused by which window has focus. And I often have many mail, textedit, and other windows open.

My husband suggested that there weren't a lot of choices for developers with respect to contrast on the title bars. I looked in Interface Builder, and even adding texture didn't seem to make a big difference. But to my eye, the OW title bar seems faint even when it has focus. Maybe that's because there is the whiteness of the search and location fields. The pinstripes don't stand out.

I think the biggest clue that I've been using without thinking about it is that the title is black instead of grey.

[Forrest]

I also put the address bar on its own line. Then it's an aqua blue instead of gray.

[JKT]

I wonder if I am the only one who actually misses the translucent title bars of background windows in the OS X of yore? God forbid Apple brought them back for the frontmost window or made the ridiculous UI mistake of Vista's overdone transparent title bars, but it was actually useful in the background windows.

[bethkatz17582]

How do you put the address bar (location field?) on its own line? Or are you fiddling in Interface Builder? I was fiddling with another app to see what options were available. I don't mess with other people's apps in Interface Builder.

[BwanaZulia]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

Thanks for your understanding!

Mostly what I am saying is not about support, obviously email is the best for one on one support, but for requests of features and discussion of those requests, the forums are much better.

I have sent countless feature requests to the OmniDudes over the years and will continue to do so, but I also like seeing other people's ideas.

BZ

[JKT]

Originally Posted by bethkatz17582

How do you put the address bar (location field?) on its own line? Or are you fiddling in Interface Builder? I was fiddling with another app to see what options were available. I don't mess with other people's apps in Interface Builder.

View>Toolbars>Location Bar

Select that and it is on its own.