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human interface

Big Sur’s icons die in the Dock

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Is your Dock busy? How well are you able to distinguish Apple’s new app icons cast rigorously into rounded rectangles? I’m still failing, and open FaceTime when I want Messages.

January 12, 2021 Macs, Technology

What’s right at the end of the menu bar, and how it’s changing

When I went to change the settings of the menu bar clock, they had vanished. Finding them revealed significant changes coming in macOS 11.

September 25, 2020 Macs, Technology

Origins of the Mac human interface, and starting macOS coding

A firsthand account of how the Mac human interface was developed 40 years ago for the Lisa, and resources for learning to code for macOS.

April 11, 2020 Macs, Technology

Using and understanding some AppKit controls, examples from Ulbow

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How to get the best out of a Combo box, and all about Pop-up Buttons, Text Fields, Date Pickers and more.

January 6, 2020 Macs, Technology

Apple, meet WYSIWYG; it’s the way Macs used to work

It may seem minor, but what TextEdit has been doing for the last 6 months is a travesty of what made the Mac.

July 25, 2019 Macs, Technology

TextEdit 1.14: Not the Dark Mode you’d expect

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Not mentioned in the release notes, the new version of TextEdit is a bold attempt to provide a Dark Mode which is infuriating, confusing, and inconsistent. Avoid it.

December 6, 2018 Macs, Technology

How to stop Dark Mode becoming Chequer Mode

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Global Dark Mode poses problems with styled text which cannot be solved well without giving the user control over the mode used by that app.

June 20, 2018 Macs, Technology

Last Week on My Mac: Is Dark Mode overdesigned?

It’s not just inversion of display colours, but has colour tinting from the Desktop, accents which change the colour of controls, and all icons need to be redesigned. Just to be cool?

June 17, 2018 Macs, Technology

Inside iCloud with Cirrus 1.0b5: Paths and containers

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Illustrated workthrough with Desktop & Documents Folders option turned on, showing file layouts in the GUI and file system. And a new version of Cirrus to do it with.

May 4, 2018 Macs, Technology

Going for iCloud Drive, or the whole way with Desktop & Documents Folders?

A detailed look at the presentation of folders and files in the Finder, GUI, Terminal, and FileManager in different iCloud options.

May 3, 2018 Macs, Technology

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