[colicoid]

About those "application holes" that reveal files on the desktop.
I was doing the whole putting icons in special places on the desktop dance too for a while. It's impossible to work like that. If you save out a file to the desktop from e.g. photoshop you are using the Save As dialog which doesn't let you place the file with DnD, so it just ends up at the next available location. Bah!

I discovered a fantastic little trick which is really useful to me because I really dislike those magnetic exposé corners.

1. You are in an application; say OF. and want to drag a file from the desktop into it.
2. Reveal the desktop using exposé keyboard shortcut.
3. Drag the file from the desktop to the OF icon in the dock and press SPACE.
4. Boom! OF is revealed in all its glory and you can now drop your file into it.

I was jumping up and down when I found out about this one. :)

[MacBerry]

You can also just hover over the dock icon and have OF reactivate that way. Maybe you have cup of coffee in one hand and the mouse in the other, so can't get to the space bar ;) !!!!!!!

[LawDaddy]

That's why I love this board!!! I have never had much use for expose until now! I drag many files into OF so this is a time-saver for sure.

MacBerry, my hover does not work as you say; the OF icon stays grayed-out. I tried having OF in various states, i.e., having an action active, or having a notes field open, but to no avail. Any ideas?

However, my thumb can stay on the trackpad while I hit the space bar at the same time so the coffee is safe!

[MacBerry]

Originally Posted by LawDaddy

MacBerry, my hover does not work as you say; the OF icon stays grayed-out. I tried having OF in various states, i.e., having an action active, or having a notes field open, but to no avail. Any ideas?

Ah yes, I remember now. There's a hidden preference you have to activate using terminal to turn "spring loading" on for the dock. I learned it on macosxhints.com. I'll try to find it when I have time later, and post a link.

Dennis, you're right that is quicker, but only if OF is (was) the active window. I guess 9 times out of 10 it's likely to have been, but to be sure you get OF regardless of where you were before you invoked Expose, you need to use Colicoid's method, or the "all windows" mode of Expose.

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by colicoid

About those "application holes" that reveal files on the desktop.
I was doing the whole putting icons in special places on the desktop dance too for a while. It's impossible to work like that. If you save out a file to the desktop from e.g. photoshop you are using the Save As dialog which doesn't let you place the file with DnD, so it just ends up at the next available location. Bah!

OK, maybe it presents some challenges, but impossible? I don't think it's impossible.

The gist of my argument is that, IMHO, it's better to have layered windows with some degree of visibility to other UI objects (icons, other windows, etc). More visibility is better. Some of the ways this can be achieved is by using a larger display, increasing your screen resolution, reducing the size of your windows, positioning items so they are all accessible at the same time, taking advantage of software features like Exposé and Spaces, etc. There are trade-offs to all of these options and none of them are a sure-fire win. To stack the odds in your favor, however, it's wise to take advantage of as many of these options as you can.

For me, full screen windows are antithetical to the modern, multi-window GUI. Full-screen windows represents the very technical limitations the computer usability industry struggled to solve decades ago. To go back to that paradigm is to disregard all those important advancements. But that's just me, and I do use fullscreen windows on occasion, but OmniFocus is not one of them.

Originally Posted by colicoid

1. You are in an application; say OF. and want to drag a file from the desktop into it.
2. Reveal the desktop using exposé keyboard shortcut.
3. Drag the file from the desktop to the OF icon in the dock and press SPACE.
4. Boom! OF is revealed in all its glory and you can now drop your file into it.

In step #3, why not just hit the Exposé keyboard shortcut again to return to the app you were at? Wouldn't that be easier than dragging and pressing spacebar (which, incidentally, doesn't seem to be working here), especially since you finger is already yon the Exposé button?

-Dennis

[colicoid]

Originally Posted by Toadling

OK, maybe it presents some challenges, but impossible? I don't think it's impossible.

The gist of my argument is that, IMHO, it's better to have layered windows with some degree of visibility to other UI objects (icons, other windows, etc).

I didn't actually mean "impossible", I was just trying to be dramatic. :)

I too think that (for certain software) with newer super high res screens, full screen work is becoming less of an option. I am a Windows emigrant so I was used to the full screen paradigm. I used to think that if I had more than one app on the screen at the same time I felt it was distracting (again adding a little punch here for drama). I am slowly starting to learn to not be distracted by the "windows everywhere" paradigm. But its hard and it takes time. The need to organize and keep track of those windows is increasing. I find that spaces, Command+H, Command+Tab and expose together makes for a very confusing cocktail. As of now I don't use spaces much, just the other three techniques...

Originally Posted by Toadling

In step #3, why not just hit the Exposé keyboard shortcut again to return to the app you were at? Wouldn't that be easier than dragging and pressing spacebar (which, incidentally, doesn't seem to be working here), especially since you finger is already yon the Exposé button?

Why did I not think of that. :)
There is however one advantage to the "spacebar" approach.
If OF is hidden (by Comman-H), it will unhide on spacebar.
And I just realized that I can start dragging the file and then Command-Tab into OF to drop it there too.

As to wether we should have the inspector as a side panel or not; my take on it is that OF is expensive enough to merit both. The inspector do get in the way for me a lot since I sometimes have quite long action names. I agree with the notion that we should have the freedom to move it around and even put it on a different screen. I also think that we should be able to dock it. I pretty much use it as a side bar just now but I have to manually set that up now. I also agree with that OF is inconsistant in terms of what is offered in the side bar vs inline. I see benefit to offering all options inline as long as it is customizable. I certainly think that all data should be available in the inspector. I do way too much visibility switching of inline notes.

[MacBerry]

Originally Posted by colicoid

I do way too much visibility switching of inline notes.

I think you've summed up my point pretty well there. A properly designed inline feature would do the visibility switching for you. It's not enough to just make everything available inline, it also needs to be designed to reduce the amount of clicking needed to see the data in the action you're interested in.

The inspector or sidebar also offers this advantage if all data is included, so I'd agree that the option of all three would be good. Each has it's benefits and advocates. Personally I see little difference between the inspector positioned to the side, and a side bar, but given that some people are happier with the on/off nature of the inspector, think all three need to be available.

That said, I'd have inline and inspector if only two options could be given, only because they both exist already, yet are not complete.