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More iTunes, OS X Feature Requests

Inspired by several good suggestions for improvements to both iTunes and the OS X dock, I thought I’d contribute a few of my own…


Inspired by several good suggestions for improvements to both iTunes and the OS X dock, I thought I’d contribute a few of my own:

1) iTunes: The CDDB service is a great time saver when it works, but I have a number of rather obscure music CD’s that I need to enter information on and I find the mouse-intensive nature of the current table view mode to be very tiresome. It would be great if iTunes had some kind of mode that followed a more standard database/spreadsheet convention when it comes to entering post information, that is to say that:

A) Posts do not automatically sort while being entered
B) Tab moves the cursor to the next field to the right, shift-tab moves to the left, and
C) Directional arrows are enabled for navigating within fields in the tables

2) The OS X dock needs work. I like many things about it, but it should be preemptive in the way that the Windows task bar is, that is to say always in the foreground when it is active, and the other items on the desktop need to adjust to the presence of the dock instead of getting stuck behind it. O’Grady likes to keep it on the left, but that is where new windows like to open up. OS X should automatically place new windows (have you noticed that Apple is calling them “panes” nowadays?) just a bit to the right so that they won’t interfere with the dock.

My last point is just a niggle regarding dock placement options. On my TiBook I use just the LCD most of the time, but I use monitor spanning (with the second monitor on the right side) at work. If I place the dock on the right of the LCD it jumps to the right side of the second monitor when I attach it. This is entirely logical, but doesn’t support my particular workflow. I’d like to be able to leave the dock on my laptop display even if I can drag things past it to a second monitor.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.