Submission details
WindowShade is gone
WindowShade, the ability to double-click a folder's title bar and have it minimise in-place (rather than moving down to the dock) is not available in OS X. It was available in MacOS 7.5-9 but Apple never added it back to OS X. Often I just want to quickly look behind the active window without switching apps, which WindowShade accomplishes very efficiently.
WindowShade was replaced with Minimise to the Dock, which is awfully tedious because often I want to leave the current application active but have a quick peek behind it. Exposé doesn't work for this task because it requires switching to the window behind. Hiding the application hides the entire application but I just want to hide one window. The minimise button is at the top left of the window, the dock is at the bottom right of the screen requiring lots of mouse movement and if you have multiple monitors it is even more tedious. After minimising 5-10 windows, you're presented with a whole bunch of identical looking icons in the dock and the only way to find out which one you need is by hovering the mouse over them until you find the one you need. Minimised windows are not available to Exposé or command-tab, even though they are open and active. There are no keyboard shortcuts for maximising the windows, so a lengthy drag and click is needed to bring up a window, when sometimes I just want to look at it quickly then minimise it again. If you have the dock set to automatically hide, it looks like you have no open windows even though you might have 10 active minimised windows. There are so many things wrong with minimising to dock, but so many things right about WindowShade.
I currently use Unsanity's Application Enhancer which adds similar functionality with WindowShade X but is believed by some to create system instability, and will probably be broken again when Snow Leopard is released. It's also a commercial product. Obviously it would be favourable for Apple to reintroduce this functionality itself, if only for the benefit of multiple monitor users.
Add it back as an option so we can choose between minimise to dock or WindowShade. The windows can be spring-loaded so when you hover over them the window maximises again temporarily, which may also please some people who are aching for tabbed Finder windows, as it allows many windows open at the same time with a minimal desktop footprint.
Low
High
Not fixed
Discussion (11 comments)
I actually like window shade when it was out in the classic Mac OS days... but I don't mind it being gone with the combination of Expose and the Dock. Because of those, I see it as a low likely-hood of Apple adding it back again, but it would be kind of neat to see.
MicroWaveDave IS STUCK IN THE PAST. I'm sorry, but really - every post by this guy says that OS X is doing some things differently from OS9 and that OS9 had the best things. Welcome to the Future, MicroWaveDave, things happen differently and apprantly, they, urm, seem to work good. Expose, spaces, minimizing, (even the bubble remains to do away with the controls!), all those things are today. Making the window show just it's title bar was OS9, a long time ago, and it just isn't usefull. In exposé, you wouldn't be able to distinguish windows anymore if you did that. Use the goddamn dock, or is that the devils inventions as well?
Accodrding to VersionTracker alone, 189,518 have downloaded WindowShade X, and people pay for the privilege of using it. Obviously I'm not the only person who finds it more efficient than minimising to the dock. I have three 19" monitors and minimising to the dock wastes so much time because I have to drag my mouse alllll the way over to the other monitor to get the window back.
I'm finding your comments very offensive jasper. Please accept other people have an opinion. Please don't post here again unless you can add something useful to the conversation. Personally flaming somebody for posting an idea will eventually get you banned from most forums. You yourself added an annoyance that OS X doesn't give any audio indication that USB devices have been attached. I could have made a comment along the lines of 'Stupid Windoze user, go back to using Windoze if you want that feature, what's wrong with just looking at the computer to see when USB is plugged in' but instead I tried to help by offering three utilites that can give you the requested functionality. I personally don't want the computer to make sounds when things are plugged in, but understand why people may like that feature. 21 people demoted your idea but nobody personally flamed you for it.
The real point of what I'm saying is that you're living in the past. 189,518 is not even a substantial part of the MacOS X user base and that doesn't even mean so any people use it. You have just posted many 'ideas' that are actually reviving all those old things - you're just stuck in the past, and that is incredibly annoying.
I asked before, refrain from personal comments. This website is about our current annoyances with OS X, not about our annoyances with each other. Your 'Sounds when USB devices are plugged in' idea was introduced with Windows 95, the same time WindowShade was added to OS 7.5. Both features are the same age, neither is living in the past. WindowShade is a convenient timesaving feature, USB audio doesn't even really do anything useful except give you peace of mind. Vista still has USB sounds because MS never removed the feature. OS X doesn't have WindowShade because Apple never added it back in. If Apple added it in OS X beta, people like me would still be happily using it, and you probably wouldn't be complaining about me.
That does not make sense. It's like saying that Microsoft should have removed these sounds, while they are a good addition to the OS. Apple didn't include your idea here in OS X anymore because OS X had the dock and therefore the possibility the minimize there, making no need for that functionality anymore. The verification of USB devices is usefull for the piece of mind and there is currently no solution avaible within the OS itself. Your thing was once in the OS and is now gone for a reason.
It's not because they're the same age that their abundant. If, however, they are long-lost features then they are from the past. Your don't make any sense in your reply. Both features are about the same age, but Finder is even older. Should they drop that too? Like throwing out the USB sound from Windows? Your feature was shagged and replaced by a newer and more universal feature. Also, your feature would confuse users, create yet another way that Windows can act, and is unnecesarry since you can use exposé (even with multiple screens).
You're still in the past, whil some features proved themselves and survived in the future (hence the USB-sounds) and others didn't make the cut and were replaced. Your argument doesn't make sense.
And about the personal attack, you have posted five things in two days and all of them are OS9 features or 'things that Apple pulled out because of technical impossibility or confusion'.
Changed problem description.
Changed problem description.
Changed problem description.
Changed solution description.
There is actually a shortcut to get to the dock: ctrl+F2 or ctrl+F3 (I'm not entirely sure) allowing you to control the dock using the keyboard. Might solve your tedious searching cross-screens.
Good idea but unfortunately pressing Control-F3 then using the arrow keys to select minimised windows requires two hands on the keyboard, or moving one hand from one side to the other. It takes just as long if not longer than dragging the mouse back and forth.
I still prefer WindowShade, lucky a third-party company was kind enough to develop it again. It appears I'm the only one who likes it on this website though, ao I'll have to concede defeat on this one.
"The windows can be spring-loaded so when you hover over them the window maximises again temporarily"
That's a very nice idea. Spring-loaded titlebars with auto-collapse functionality. That'd be similar to pop-up folders.
These "spring-loaded" title bars are somehow already in use on many Linux desktops (using the scroll-wheel minimizing the window to the title bar) and some sort of spring-loaded Dock items are coming with Windows 7 (Aero Peek).
abitgone wrote on October 1, 2008, 2:35pm
WindowShade was an annoyance. I much perfer minimising to the dock or using Cmd-H to hide the app altogether.