So, is File Vault a waste of time with a good password?
Canadian Mounties ... Apple Experts? No kidding? How did that happen I wonder?
Read it when I was doing some research a few months back - cant find the artical now to save my life...shoulda saved it as a PDF while I had the chance.
You can drag the applications folder to the right of the dock and have that as a link. I have it there, holding it down brings up a menu of what's inside which is handy.
I know you can do it, I've done it too. Apple should do it for you. It'd be much easier on the switchers who don't know enough about the operating system to do it themselves.
I know you can do it, I've done it too. Apple should do it for you. It'd be much easier on the switchers who don't know enough about the operating system to do it themselves.
Maybe, they add a URL link, partly to advertise themselves but also to let users know it's customisable. Maybe they should put folders in as well.
I know you can do it, I've done it too. Apple should do it for you. It'd be much easier on the switchers who don't know enough about the operating system to do it themselves.
You mean, put the Applications alias there in the Dock at install? Why not, but I am not sure how important that would be for usability.
One thing that I'd like to see for new users' benefit would be an interactive tutorial that floated on top of the UI and gave short explanations of frequent tasks and then instructed the user how to perform them, like dragging a shortcut to the Dock "take this icon (big red circle around the icon) and drag it here (big red X in Dock) to leave a shortcut for later use". This would not bother people during normal use but be a strictly separate "tour" designed to expose the user to Finder, Expose and some suitably non-technical, user-friendly system preferences like changing the desktop background.
Nowadays all games do "in game" tutorials, and many of them live or die by their usability. Why couldn't an OS do the same?
edit: one of these tasks could well be to drag the Apps folder to the Dock, and to use it in a couple different ways. A very natural way to expose people to this new object in the Dock instead of seeing it right away and going "WTF is this supposed to do?".
I think Apple would argue that an intuitive OS does not require this.
Only it's not that intuitive. Have you ever had to teach someone to use a computer who literally fears them?
We'll talk about intuitive once people do not have to know what applications are, where in the computer to find them, where in the computer to find their documents, and which application is the right one for the task they are trying to do.
Only it's not that intuitive. Have you ever had to teach someone to use a computer who literally fears them?
We'll talk about intuitive once people do not have to know what applications are, where in the computer to find them, where in the computer to find their documents, and which application is the right one for the task they are trying to do.
Or try converting a windows user who is used to having an application list in the start menu. I've had a couple get really frustrated searching through all the folders trying to access a browser.
Only it's not that intuitive. Have you ever had to teach someone to use a computer who literally fears them?
We'll talk about intuitive once people do not have to know what applications are, where in the computer to find them, where in the computer to find their documents, and which application is the right one for the task they are trying to do.
Yeah I agree it would be useful for some people but experienced users would find it frustrating so it shouldn't get in people's way.
I don't think it would really get in the way that much.
It could just run automatically the first time you start the computer, and it would have an exit button.
Windows sort of has something like this. Actually I don't think I've never done it, but I think it's more of like a flash movie that shows stuff. But anyway, if you don't want to do the tutorial, it's easy to skip.
Something like Linspire with it's flash tutorial. It starts when you first install the system after it boots, and if you want, you can follow it, if you don't you can close it.
You can start it at anytime you want, and it covers basic stuff, but in all categories of the OS.
Something like Linspire with it's flash tutorial. It starts when you first install the system after it boots, and if you want, you can follow it, if you don't you can close it.
You can start it at anytime you want, and it covers basic stuff, but in all categories of the OS.
I haven't seen this, but it would be a whole lot more effective if the tutorial was embedded well in the system, so you would not read a passage and watch an animation in a window and then try to imitate it, but would actually do the thing yourself all the time. The relevant items, buttons, icons, objects would be highlighted for you and explanations and animations telling what to do projected right on top of the screen, not in a window.
Not really like that. I agree with Gon that it needs to be a special type of program that is running on top of everything else, not just a normal application. I am sort of thinking of the Sims, when you do the tutorial game, it lets you play the game and at the same time is showing you how to play. It's like click on the character, and then it points at it with a red arrow, which moves around if the character is moving around.
In Mac OS it should be kind of similar. For example to browse the internet just click here to launch the Safari browser, and it should point to and make the Safari icon blink red in the Doc. Then when the user clicks it, they are actually clicking it, and the program launches. The walkthrough mode should be working with the OS, rather than just showing a movie of what is supposed to happen.
This method is so effective and prevalent for learning new UI's that nowadays that I'm surprised when I see a game that does not use a live tutorial of some kind.
OK, now I see what you guys mean (sorry, kind of slow today). That would indeed be a good idea. Since I don't play any games at all, I'm not really familiar with the method, but it does sound good.
Pre-OS X, you could look something up in Help, and ask it to 'Show Me'. It would then launch the appropriate prefs panel, whatever, and draw on the screen with a red 'marker', circling things you should be looking at, drawing arrows, etc, all the while having little balloons that would tell you what to do next. It could run in either a coaching mode, or you could tell it to just do it, and it would only be interactive when it needed you to type something in, otherwise it just did it. But it kept showing you what it was doing.
Comments
Originally posted by aplnub
So, is File Vault a waste of time with a good password?
Canadian Mounties ... Apple Experts? No kidding? How did that happen I wonder?
Read it when I was doing some research a few months back - cant find the artical now to save my life...shoulda saved it as a PDF while I had the chance.
Originally posted by danielctull
You can drag the applications folder to the right of the dock and have that as a link. I have it there, holding it down brings up a menu of what's inside which is handy.
I know you can do it, I've done it too. Apple should do it for you. It'd be much easier on the switchers who don't know enough about the operating system to do it themselves.
Originally posted by BenRoethig
I know you can do it, I've done it too. Apple should do it for you. It'd be much easier on the switchers who don't know enough about the operating system to do it themselves.
Maybe, they add a URL link, partly to advertise themselves but also to let users know it's customisable. Maybe they should put folders in as well.
Originally posted by BenRoethig
I know you can do it, I've done it too. Apple should do it for you. It'd be much easier on the switchers who don't know enough about the operating system to do it themselves.
You mean, put the Applications alias there in the Dock at install? Why not, but I am not sure how important that would be for usability.
One thing that I'd like to see for new users' benefit would be an interactive tutorial that floated on top of the UI and gave short explanations of frequent tasks and then instructed the user how to perform them, like dragging a shortcut to the Dock "take this icon (big red circle around the icon) and drag it here (big red X in Dock) to leave a shortcut for later use". This would not bother people during normal use but be a strictly separate "tour" designed to expose the user to Finder, Expose and some suitably non-technical, user-friendly system preferences like changing the desktop background.
Nowadays all games do "in game" tutorials, and many of them live or die by their usability. Why couldn't an OS do the same?
edit: one of these tasks could well be to drag the Apps folder to the Dock, and to use it in a couple different ways. A very natural way to expose people to this new object in the Dock instead of seeing it right away and going "WTF is this supposed to do?".
Originally posted by MacCrazy
I think Apple would argue that an intuitive OS does not require this.
Only it's not that intuitive. Have you ever had to teach someone to use a computer who literally fears them?
We'll talk about intuitive once people do not have to know what applications are, where in the computer to find them, where in the computer to find their documents, and which application is the right one for the task they are trying to do.
Originally posted by Gon
Only it's not that intuitive. Have you ever had to teach someone to use a computer who literally fears them?
We'll talk about intuitive once people do not have to know what applications are, where in the computer to find them, where in the computer to find their documents, and which application is the right one for the task they are trying to do.
Or try converting a windows user who is used to having an application list in the start menu. I've had a couple get really frustrated searching through all the folders trying to access a browser.
Originally posted by Gon
Only it's not that intuitive. Have you ever had to teach someone to use a computer who literally fears them?
We'll talk about intuitive once people do not have to know what applications are, where in the computer to find them, where in the computer to find their documents, and which application is the right one for the task they are trying to do.
Yeah I agree it would be useful for some people but experienced users would find it frustrating so it shouldn't get in people's way.
Originally posted by MacCrazy
Yeah I agree it would be useful for some people but experienced users would find it frustrating so it shouldn't get in people's way.
Read my last post again. This is an interactive tutorial that you expressly start.
It could just run automatically the first time you start the computer, and it would have an exit button.
Windows sort of has something like this. Actually I don't think I've never done it, but I think it's more of like a flash movie that shows stuff. But anyway, if you don't want to do the tutorial, it's easy to skip.
You can start it at anytime you want, and it covers basic stuff, but in all categories of the OS.
Originally posted by Gene Clean
Something like Linspire with it's flash tutorial. It starts when you first install the system after it boots, and if you want, you can follow it, if you don't you can close it.
You can start it at anytime you want, and it covers basic stuff, but in all categories of the OS.
I haven't seen this, but it would be a whole lot more effective if the tutorial was embedded well in the system, so you would not read a passage and watch an animation in a window and then try to imitate it, but would actually do the thing yourself all the time. The relevant items, buttons, icons, objects would be highlighted for you and explanations and animations telling what to do projected right on top of the screen, not in a window.
Macs used to come with a "Welcome to Macintosh" tutorial that auto-ran on first boot. I wish they'd do that again.
I don't know if this is what you mean, but if you want, take a look.
In Mac OS it should be kind of similar. For example to browse the internet just click here to launch the Safari browser, and it should point to and make the Safari icon blink red in the Doc. Then when the user clicks it, they are actually clicking it, and the program launches. The walkthrough mode should be working with the OS, rather than just showing a movie of what is supposed to happen.
This method is so effective and prevalent for learning new UI's that nowadays that I'm surprised when I see a game that does not use a live tutorial of some kind.
Pre-OS X, you could look something up in Help, and ask it to 'Show Me'. It would then launch the appropriate prefs panel, whatever, and draw on the screen with a red 'marker', circling things you should be looking at, drawing arrows, etc, all the while having little balloons that would tell you what to do next. It could run in either a coaching mode, or you could tell it to just do it, and it would only be interactive when it needed you to type something in, otherwise it just did it. But it kept showing you what it was doing.