Betalogue

Further proof, if needed, that Apple continues to treat the list view mode in Mac OS X’s Finder as a second-class citizen.

In Lion’s Finder, open a folder in list view that contains, for example, a Numbers ’09 file that you currently have open in Numbers and are in the process of editing.

Select a file in that folder (other than the Numbers ’09 file, which will tend to disappear and reappear every time Mac OS X auto-saves it). Now switch to Numbers ’09 and make some changes to the open file, with or without hitting command-S.

Now switch back to the Finder and watch. As soon as Mac OS X auto-saves the Numbers ’09 file, the disappearance and reappearance of the auto-saved Numbers ’09 also causes the Finder to lose the current selection in the window in list view.

I noticed that, because I had a series of text files that I wanted to open to get a word count and then enter that word count in a Numbers ’09 file to calculate the total word count. Since it was a very repetitive process, I wanted to do it all with the keyboard. I should be able to select a file, open it in Pages ’09, get a word count, switch to Numbers ’09, type the word count, switch back to the Finder and press the Down cursor key to select the next file.

But of course, half of the time, Lion would deselect the file I had just worked on and force me to reselect the next file manually, while double-checking to make sure I wasn’t selecting and counting the same file twice. Argh.

Sure enough, the problem does not occur in the same scenario with a Finder window in column view mode or in icon view mode.

Since the move from the classic Mac OS to Mac OS X, Apple has repeatedly ignored the needs of users who prefer to use the list view mode, and let a number of bugs that affect only that view mode slip through the cracks and remain unfixed for years. It is immensely frustrating, and there is no sign that things are getting better in Lion.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Thursday, September 29th, 2011 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Macintosh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.