On 24 May 2004, at 04:34 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
See, my problem is that I just don't use floating pallettes. I find they are always in the wrong place and even if they were transparent, I'd still need to move them (or windowshade them) all the time to get to the content behind them.
I suspect this is a difference between Mac and Windows users, and, therefore, the transparency support is not going to be as useful on Windows as it is on the Mac.
Not really. There are plenty of Windows apps with floating palettes -- pretty much every graphics app, for instance. Photoshop would be great with transparent palettes.
That's not how Mac Finale works. All the Mac Finale palettes are floating -- there is no toolbar.
That looks like a design error to me.
I agree that there should be the option to make the palette a toolbar in MacFin, but I don't know if I'd actually use it -- I've removed the useless tools (hand, magnifying glass, ossia, hyperscribe) from my Finale palette and have it arranged in two horizontal rows in the bottom-left corner of the screen, just above and to the left of the scroll bars. I like it there -- the icons are compact, and it's easy for me to see what tool I have selected if I've somehow lost track. I don't think it would be as convenient to have them arranged in a single horizontal row at the top of the screen. But it could be that I'm just not used to looking there. I dunno -- since we've never had the option, I don't know whether I'd like the toolbar or not.
But it suggests a point: the transparent floating pallettes aren't needed in WinFin, so there's no benefit (to Finale) in having transparency supported by the OS.
Isn't it possible to make the tools menu a floating palette in FinWin? If so, surely those who prefer it that way could benefit from transparency, just as Mac users could. And, as I already mentioned, there are the big plugin windows like Staff List Manager.
Dunno. When Coda introduced the new "gummi-bear" icons, I assumed it was to be consistent with the look of the Aqua interface.
Those aren't Aqua icons. God no. Not even close. They look like bad XP icons.
The Aqua-style Globe icons were not in the original set of Tool palette icons introduced in Fin2003. On the Mac side, at least, they were introduced in Fin2004, where they are the default. They are large, yes, and they have a slight reflective gloss on them, but they're much better-looking than either the horrible Fin2003 icons or the "classic" Finale icons (which are terrible in entirely different ways). I do wish Coda would get consistent about the use of color in the toolbar icons -- in other words, GET RID OF IT and make all the globe-style icons black, or at least black and gray (as most of them are), but the 3D highlight effect is subtle and nicely done. You'd almost certainly still hate it, but I think it's the nicest palette set Finale has ever had -- which admittedly, isn't saying much. (Again, I dunno if this style made it to the Windows version, since it's so obviously Aquafied.)
While we're on it, I also wish Finale would revise its default display colors, which, if left alone, make your Finale windows look like they're celebrating Christmas in Reno. To paraphrase Spinal Tap, it's like, how much more ugly could it be? And the answer is none. None more ugly.
This is one that makes absolutely no sense to me -- what benefit is there to a transparent menu?
None, really. It's just a nice effect. In Panther, the transparency is very subtle, just barely noticeable... I like it.
Well, floating pallettes are anethema, as far as I'm concerned. I don't have any applications that don't allow them to be treated as dockable toolbars, and that's the only way I like to use them.
But there are lots of standard Windows apps (like, say, Photoshop) that require floating palettes.
So, it's a difference between the two platforms.
I don't think so. If you any graphics work on Windows at all, you use floating palettes all the time.
I don't see how Windows benefits from copying OS X's transparency support.
Because -- as I said -- then it's in there, for developers to take or leave as they see fit. Just because it doesn't benefit you particularly doesn't mean it's an inherently bad idea.
- Darcy
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