System settings
The System Preferences application in 10.1 reorganizes the previously alphabetical list of preference panels into groups:
While the grouping has made finding a particular icon easier than in the ungrouped, alphabetical list in the 10.0.x version, the groups seem a bit loose to me. Why is QuickTime under 'Internet & Network'? Why is Login under 'Personal'? (It contains personal settings for login items, but also allows the system-wide login behavior to be changed.) Overall, it's an improvement, but a more extensible (and user-configurable) organization scheme would be even better.
System Preferences may be on the same evolutionary road as the classic Mac OS Control Panel: starting as a monolithic application, gaining organization and extensibility slowly, and eventually turning into a 'special folder' containing individual control panel applications, deferring organization to the user via the Finder's usual file management interface. Time will tell.
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The Desktop preference panel, used to set the desktop background, is a new immigrant to System Preferences, coming from its former home in the Finder's application preferences. It makes more sense in System Preferences. Users shouldn't need to know which application controls the desktop area.
Desktop preferences
The General preference panel includes a new option to set the number of recent applications and documents (5-50) that will be displayed in the corresponding items in the Apple menu. Font smoothing (antialiasing) can now be turned off below a certain font size threshold:
General preferences
Also note the option to use traditional scroll arrows (one on the top and one on the bottom) or to combine the arrows (both arrows grouped together on the bottom or right side of the scroll bar). As in Mac OS 9, the ability to have both scroll arrows at both ends is not accessible via the GUI, but is possible through other means.
The 'changes' to the Dock preferences are in a similar vein: they're all features that existed in 10.0.x, but were only accessible indirectly. 10.1 now gives the position (left, right, or bottom) and animation (genie or scale) options their own GUI in both System Preferences and the Docks's pop-up menu (both shown below). When the 'scale' effect is selected, minimizing a window scales it uniformly while moving it towards its eventual position in the Dock. This effect is much less processor intensive than the flashy 'genie' effect, and therefore completes in less time, making window minimization feel snappier. Both effects are demonstrated (with a repositioned Dock) in Apple's Mac OS X theater.
Dock preferences | Dock pop-up menu |
Missing from the new 10.1 GUI (but present, sans GUI, in 10.0.x) are the options to 'pin' the Dock at one end, to move the Dock to the top of the screen, and to select the 'suck' minimization effect. These features are present in 10.1 as well, but still have no proper GUI.
AdvertisementThe actual, functional changes to the 'new' Dock in 10.1 are few and small. In 10.0.x, hiding an application caused any of its minimized windows to 'fly over to' the application icon in the Dock, in a sort of 'rainbow' path. Revealing the application again caused the minimized windows to 'rainbow' back to their former positions in the Dock. In 10.1, they merely shrink and 're-grow' in-place. The (still hidden) pinning option is now preserved across logins. Typing 'q' while command-tab-ing through running application in the Dock causes the selected application to quit. Typing 'h' hides the selected application. Finally, application icons in the Dock now 'jump' when they want your attention. (This can be cute or annoying, depending on your mood.)
The new Universal Access preference panel includes an option to control mouse movement with the keyboard (shown below), and a 'sticky keys' feature to aid in executing keyboard modifier command sequences.
Universal Access preferences
ColorSync now auto-detects display devices and configures an appropriate device profile. Manual calibration is still possible via the Displays panel. Speaking of which, the Displays panel still refuses to give me the option to set the G4's AccuSync 120 monitor to the supported 85.02Hz refresh rate in my preferred resolution. Both 10.0.x and 10.1 provide 75Hz and 85Hz options, but no 85.02Hz. At 85Hz, the image is slightly distorted and off-center, so I'm forced to use the 75Hz setting. Needless to say, Mac OS 9 correctly detects and provides the 85.02Hz option. (If anyone knows how I can manually force the display into 85.02Hz in Mac OS X, please mail me.)
One of the most intriguing new features in 10.1 is hidden in the inconspicuous-looking Keyboard preference panel:
Full Keyboard Access: control your Mac entirely from the keyboard
The Full Keyboard Access tab gives Mac user the ability to access window controls, menus, and even the Dock via the keyboard. Combined with the Universal Access features described above, any part of Mac OS X 10.1 can be operated with the keyboard alone. Windows (necessarily) had this ability since its introduction due to the initial scarcity of mice on PCs. The ability has been retained in later versions of Windows, and is expected by PC users. Adding this ability to Mac OS X makes 10.1 slightly less disconcerting to any Windows users looking to migrate, and finally satisfies Mac users who have wanted this feature, but have had to resort to third party software in the past.
The feature works much like its Windows counterpart. The currently selected control has a dim 'glow' around it, as seen in the image below. Controls may be navigated with the tab key, or shift-tab to cycle in the other direction. User-configurable keyboard shortcuts are also provided to jump directly to the menu bar, Dock, toolbar (like those found in Finder windows), and floating 'Utility' windows or palettes. The feature itself can be turned on and off with a keyboard shortcut as well, saving a trip to the preference panel. It is turned off by default.
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The keyboard focus 'glow'
Glowing Gourds Mac Os Catalina
Unfortunately, this new feature is very buggy. As attentive readers may have noticed already, it is impossible to entirely disable this feature. For example, the checkbox in the screenshot above has the focus 'glow', but as that checkbox clearly indicates, the feature is (supposedly) turned off. In fact, it is turned on in this preference panel, despite the appearance of the checkbox. And this bug doesn't just occur in preference panels. Many of the dialogs and windows I've encountered using 10.1 have had the 'glow' on their checkboxes, radio buttons, tabs, etc., despite the fact that the feature is (ostensibly) turned off. This bug is mostly just a cosmetic annoyance, but it mars a useful and otherwise well-executed feature.
The Sharing preference panel includes new options to allow Apple Events to be received from other computers on the Network. I imagine this feature will be most useful to AppleScript authors. It is disabled by default, presumably for security reasons.
Networked AppleEvents
The Users preference panel includes a new option to associate an icon with each user. Combined with a new option in the Login preference panel, these icons may be displayed next to each user name in the new login window:
Login window with user list and accompanying icons
(Also note that the 'computer name' is displayed beneath the large 'Mac OS X' title text, rather than the Unix host name as in 10.0.x. My computer is unimagintively named 'Mac OS X', so it looks a bit odd.)
Glowing Gourds Mac Os Download
Clicking on an icon condenses the window to display just the selected icon, plus a password field. The presence of the 'Other...' icon is optional (set in the Login preference panel), and is turned off by default. Selecting it presents text fields for both the username and password.
Glowing Gourds Mac Os X
As in 10.0.x, 10.1 defaults to automatic login, which means that Macs with only a single user will never need to see the login window. When a user is added, a dialog box pops up asking if the automatic login setting should be changed. This is helpful the first time it pops up, but it appears every time a new user is added, which is slightly annoying.
Some of the preference panels have an option to display icons on the right side of the menu bar, allowing fast access to their settings at any time. The sound and displays 'system menus' are shown below, with the displays menu selected:
System Menus
The aesthetic theme for system menus is monochromatic: simple black line art. There are many other system menus, depending on your configuration, indicating battery charge, AirPort status, modem status, etc., and all of them share the same appearance theme.
One final note on the System Preferences application itself: it doesn't remember its window position. Annoying.