<strong>As others have said, the problem with floating windows is that they obscure your browser window(s). That's okay if you have a large screen and you don't need your browser to take the entire screen, but a floating window would take LOTS of room, especially if you have lots of windows open and you make the window wide enough to display a sufficiently long portion of each window's title. Still, it could work.</strong><hr></blockquote>
As someone with a Pismo, how is that any different than tabs, which are Yet Another Toolbar-esque Strip across the top that eats up pixelspace just as efficiently as a tear-off Windows menu?
Personally my browser windows are stripped down to just content and title bar. No Address Bar, no Bookmark Bar, nada.
Yet Another Toolbar doesn't need to be moved in order to see what's behind it. Because there's nothing behind it other than a web page. Just scroll and you got it. Unfortunately, you can't scroll a browser's controls to get them out from under a floating window. A floating window obscures both content AND window controls, and the only way to get around it is to minimize it, close it, or move it.
A key combo would be pretty cool. Then you'd only see the window when you want to, and never when you don't.
I thought of another idea - it's similar to how Windows uses the little display for alt-tab. When you hit alt-tab, that little window pops up and shows you what window/application you'll be switching to. Well... why not make it so a little transparent window pops up when you hit cmd-~, so you can see which window you'd be going to before you go to it. It could even look kinda like the dock... transparent, with previews of what the page looks like in a line and magnifying when you select them. Multiple uses of the key command cycle through, adding shift goes back. That could be kinda neet.
So instead of flipping blindly through all of your open browser windows you see a listing of the windows to help you? WHAT IF instead of a list of the <TITLE> tag contents you were presented with a graphic representation of the contents of each page?
So, to recap...
What if you could choose between these three options:
1. CMD-tilde simply switches between windows.
2. CMD-tilde switches between windows, with a display of <TITLE> tags in a vertical listing.
3. CMD-tilde switches between windows with a graphical min-rendering of every page's contents to help you pick the page you want.
My excuse is that I have a cold, am noodling around tying to re-do a friend's website and am hoping to be the one whose post falls onto page 10.
An addition to the idea of the translucent multiple navigation window idea: what if you could just point your mouse cursor at the listing or (alternately) the miniaturized window icon of the window you wanted to switch to... instead of CMD-tilde-ing repeatedly?
Make any sense?
EDIT:
Darnit, I had hoped that I'd pushed to the 10th page...no such luck.
This is getting over-argued. I'm sick of it. I'll just let application developers develop their applications, and I'll take what they give me. Sucks to your UI guidelines.
Give me a virtual desktop over tabs any day of the week. I'm using the CodeTek Virtual Desktop and it seems to work, but it would be much, much cooler if the desktop panes were in the dock.
I often have 15+ windows open and doing the Command-~ or Command-Tab is so beyond inefficient it's not even worth a discussion.
Whee, let me join the interesting discussion with a completely uninformed position, please.
I haven't read all 9 pages, I've skimmed a bunch, so here goes:
Tabs on the browser are a convenience for going to the windows menu (long mouse movement, not visible until you've gone there) or cmd-~ (uncertain how many you need to get where you're going).
So the purpose of the tab is to see what's available and/or navigate between windows within an application with minimal effort/visual parsing.
With a two button mouse and a scroll wheel, what about right-click+scroll (or something like that) bringing up a context menu with a list of windows within an app, releasing the right button chooses the window?
Or more generally, some way of bringing up a context menu with a list of windows right where the cursor is?
I'm not saying any of this well, but it's all off the cuff.
Whenever you use a multi-button mouse on the Mac all you're doing is automating pressing a key and clicking your mouse. So the key-combination could be something that you assign to the center button (aka. "scroll button") of your third-party scrolling mouse using the utility that came with your mouse (or alternately USB overdrive).
Safari's implementation of Tabs isn't so good, IMO.
I like them in Chimera, because I can choose whether to open a link in a new window, or a new tab. Thus, I can organize pages at two levels.
For example, I would open each forum at AI in it's own window, and then open individual threads in their own tabs. Safari won't let me do this, I have to either use tabs for everything or nothing.
In their current incarnation, I consider Safari's Tabs utterly useless. Instead of adding an extra layer of organization, they replace one method of organization with another. If I have to use only one method, then for sure it would NOT be tabs.
Tabs are only useful under some circumstances, and Safari simply doesn't allow for this. I can only hope that tabs aren't really finished yet, and they will work like they do in Chimera when done.
BTW, nice waste of 9 pages to shout back and forth over whether tabs are any good or not. It's like arguing about ice cream flavor....what works for me doesn't always work for others. At least they're an option--don't like 'em, don't use 'em, and don't bitch.
<strong>Safari's implementation of Tabs isn't so good, IMO.
...Safari won't let me do this, I have to either use tabs for everything or nothing.
In their current incarnation, I consider Safari's Tabs utterly useless. Instead of adding an extra layer of organization, they replace one method of organization with another. If I have to use only one method, then for sure it would NOT be tabs.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Haaaaaaaaaa, maybe this why Eugene and his sidekicks where farting
all over about Tabs. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> :eek: <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
If in Safari you are stuck with only "Tabs" then that is crapola indeed. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
<strong>Safari's implementation of Tabs isn't so good, IMO.
I like them in Chimera, because I can choose whether to open a link in a new window, or a new tab. Thus, I can organize pages at two levels.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
In Safari command click opens in a new tab, option-command click opens in a new window. If you use the contextual menu you can choose either a window or a tab and under the file menu you can choose a window or a tab. So it's really not as limiting as you make it sound.
2nd EDIT: after editing this message, I was taken back to page 9 of the discussion and it showed the standard page except there were no posts that appeared. Just the headers, a gray bar, and footers. Then I reloaded and it came back, but for a while I was like, "sweet, I just killed the tab thread!"
I thought that I had killed this thread all by myself too. In fact, this thread has bumped my post count by about 100. Unless something truly interesting happens here I'm swearing off this thread because it's making me look like Eman!! (no offense Eman)
<strong>I thought that I had killed this thread all by myself too. In fact, this thread has bumped my post count by about 100. Unless something truly interesting happens here I'm swearing off this thread because it's making me look like Eman!! (no offense Eman)</strong><hr></blockquote>
Comments
<strong>As others have said, the problem with floating windows is that they obscure your browser window(s). That's okay if you have a large screen and you don't need your browser to take the entire screen, but a floating window would take LOTS of room, especially if you have lots of windows open and you make the window wide enough to display a sufficiently long portion of each window's title. Still, it could work.</strong><hr></blockquote>
As someone with a Pismo, how is that any different than tabs, which are Yet Another Toolbar-esque Strip across the top that eats up pixelspace just as efficiently as a tear-off Windows menu?
Personally my browser windows are stripped down to just content and title bar. No Address Bar, no Bookmark Bar, nada.
A key combo would be pretty cool. Then you'd only see the window when you want to, and never when you don't.
I thought of another idea - it's similar to how Windows uses the little display for alt-tab. When you hit alt-tab, that little window pops up and shows you what window/application you'll be switching to. Well... why not make it so a little transparent window pops up when you hit cmd-~, so you can see which window you'd be going to before you go to it. It could even look kinda like the dock... transparent, with previews of what the page looks like in a line and magnifying when you select them. Multiple uses of the key command cycle through, adding shift goes back. That could be kinda neet.
So instead of flipping blindly through all of your open browser windows you see a listing of the windows to help you? WHAT IF instead of a list of the <TITLE> tag contents you were presented with a graphic representation of the contents of each page?
So, to recap...
What if you could choose between these three options:
1. CMD-tilde simply switches between windows.
2. CMD-tilde switches between windows, with a display of <TITLE> tags in a vertical listing.
3. CMD-tilde switches between windows with a graphical min-rendering of every page's contents to help you pick the page you want.
4. Activate TABS if you want them.
.
Takes up no screen space, and appeases those who are so anti-tab that they go on killing sprees when they see someone who thinks tabs are good.
come on guys, where are you now?
Is it that hard just to it cmd-`? That's a nice no-click solution.
sorry!
<strong>Your laziness renders your suggestion null and void.
sorry!
I read three pages.... Some people have things to do.
An addition to the idea of the translucent multiple navigation window idea: what if you could just point your mouse cursor at the listing or (alternately) the miniaturized window icon of the window you wanted to switch to... instead of CMD-tilde-ing repeatedly?
Make any sense?
EDIT:
Darnit, I had hoped that I'd pushed to the 10th page...no such luck.
.
[ 03-02-2003: Message edited by: drewprops ]</p>
I often have 15+ windows open and doing the Command-~ or Command-Tab is so beyond inefficient it's not even worth a discussion.
I haven't read all 9 pages, I've skimmed a bunch, so here goes:
Tabs on the browser are a convenience for going to the windows menu (long mouse movement, not visible until you've gone there) or cmd-~ (uncertain how many you need to get where you're going).
So the purpose of the tab is to see what's available and/or navigate between windows within an application with minimal effort/visual parsing.
With a two button mouse and a scroll wheel, what about right-click+scroll (or something like that) bringing up a context menu with a list of windows within an app, releasing the right button chooses the window?
Or more generally, some way of bringing up a context menu with a list of windows right where the cursor is?
I'm not saying any of this well, but it's all off the cuff.
Regardless, it's an interesting option.
But I still like tabs.
Just a few more posts before we hit 10 pages...
or the thread gets locked.
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
I like them in Chimera, because I can choose whether to open a link in a new window, or a new tab. Thus, I can organize pages at two levels.
For example, I would open each forum at AI in it's own window, and then open individual threads in their own tabs. Safari won't let me do this, I have to either use tabs for everything or nothing.
In their current incarnation, I consider Safari's Tabs utterly useless. Instead of adding an extra layer of organization, they replace one method of organization with another. If I have to use only one method, then for sure it would NOT be tabs.
Tabs are only useful under some circumstances, and Safari simply doesn't allow for this. I can only hope that tabs aren't really finished yet, and they will work like they do in Chimera when done.
BTW, nice waste of 9 pages to shout back and forth over whether tabs are any good or not. It's like arguing about ice cream flavor....what works for me doesn't always work for others. At least they're an option--don't like 'em, don't use 'em, and don't bitch.
<strong>Safari's implementation of Tabs isn't so good, IMO.
...Safari won't let me do this, I have to either use tabs for everything or nothing.
In their current incarnation, I consider Safari's Tabs utterly useless. Instead of adding an extra layer of organization, they replace one method of organization with another. If I have to use only one method, then for sure it would NOT be tabs.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Haaaaaaaaaa, maybe this why Eugene and his sidekicks where farting
all over about Tabs. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> :eek: <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
If in Safari you are stuck with only "Tabs" then that is crapola indeed. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
[ 03-05-2003: Message edited by: PooPooDoctor ]</p>
<strong>Safari's implementation of Tabs isn't so good, IMO.
I like them in Chimera, because I can choose whether to open a link in a new window, or a new tab. Thus, I can organize pages at two levels.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
In Safari command click opens in a new tab, option-command click opens in a new window. If you use the contextual menu you can choose either a window or a tab and under the file menu you can choose a window or a tab. So it's really not as limiting as you make it sound.
[ 03-04-2003: Message edited by: Endymion ]</p>
[ 03-04-2003: Message edited by: Luca Rescigno ]
2nd EDIT: after editing this message, I was taken back to page 9 of the discussion and it showed the standard page except there were no posts that appeared. Just the headers, a gray bar, and footers. Then I reloaded and it came back, but for a while I was like, "sweet, I just killed the tab thread!"
[ 03-04-2003: Message edited by: Luca Rescigno ]</p>
<strong>I thought that I had killed this thread all by myself too. In fact, this thread has bumped my post count by about 100. Unless something truly interesting happens here I'm swearing off this thread because it's making me look like Eman!! (no offense Eman)</strong><hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Yea, this thread is tabbed out. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Hope you are feeling better. Having a cold is such a drag.
[ 03-04-2003: Message edited by: PooPooDoctor ]</p>