Preview, the Mac app people forget about • Hacker News Board

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#61

Post by samstave » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:35 PM UTC

wlesieutre wrote: post #19

jitl wrote: post #7

Preview is one of those essential things that sets macOS apart from the other operating systems, and contributes to that “Mac has good UX” vibe. Last time I opened the Windows equivalent, it tried to sell me on Microsoft’s PDF-alike format… and asked me to connect Office365. Another tiny macOS feature I love is that you can drop a file icon on any Open or Save dialog to select the file in the dialog. On other OSs, th…

I can't stand when I have to deal with a PDF on Windows on my office computer where I have the free copy of Acrobat. You can right click on a page and it's got "rotate" buttons up at the top. But when you click on one, it takes a second to think about it and then opens a popup to offer you a free 7-day trial of the Pro version. Rotating a page is too powerful a feature for Adobe to not try and sell it to you. https:/…

What I hate about software like PDF viewers is that they are akin to:

Here I printed your manuscript, but in order to read it, you need to pay me for these special glasses to see the ink.

Oh you want a change? Pay me for these special gloves so you may handle the pages and reorganize them as you like.

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#62

Post by apnsngr » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:36 PM UTC

kevinsundar wrote: post #18

People also forget that you can use Preview to scan documents from your scanner rather than using whatever shitty software came with yours. Also, Preview > File > Import from iPhone > Scan Documents gives you a virtual scanner instead of having to install one of those "scanner" apps on your phone. Its built into your iPhone already! I also use it frequently to change image file types. You can also make a digital vers…

There is also the built in Image Capture app that works with most flatbed scanners or printer/scanner combos. It has its own quirks, but works better than any manufacturer software I’ve ever tried.

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#63

Post by jjmorrison » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:36 PM UTC

I want preview on iOS!!

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#64

Post by hnlmorg » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:36 PM UTC

jitl wrote: post #7

Preview is one of those essential things that sets macOS apart from the other operating systems, and contributes to that “Mac has good UX” vibe. Last time I opened the Windows equivalent, it tried to sell me on Microsoft’s PDF-alike format… and asked me to connect Office365. Another tiny macOS feature I love is that you can drop a file icon on any Open or Save dialog to select the file in the dialog. On other OSs, th…

> Another tiny macOS feature I love is that you can drop a file icon on any Open or Save dialog to select the file in the dialog. On other OSs, this moves the file to the directory shown in the dialog, or does nothing.

The reason other OS's don't support that macOS feature is because their open and save dialogue is usable on its own. In my opinion the open and save dialogue is one of the worst designed interfaces on macOS (and easily the worst open and save dialogue across all of the popular desktop environments). The fact that it's "killer feature" is having to use another file navigator to find the target and then drag that file into the first dialogue (ie dialogue that should have been used to find the file to begin with) is more damning than anything.

If there were two things I wish Apple would add in macOS, it is:

1. draggable hotspots (like in Windows and KDE)

2. a completely redesigned open and save dialogue that works a little more like Windows and KDE

I can live (and even like some of) macOS's idiosyncrasies. But those two irritate the hell out of me on an almost daily basis.

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#65

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:38 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #48

The best use of Preview/Markup is proper redaction of names for posting images to social media: 1. Set Shape Fill color 2. Set Shape Border color 3. Insert a Rectangle. The rectangle can then be moved/resized/copy/pasted to cover names precisely and won't inadvertently leak names like the spraypaint tool does.

[deleted]

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#66

Post by saagarjha » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:38 PM UTC

hnlmorg wrote: post #64

jitl wrote: post #7

Preview is one of those essential things that sets macOS apart from the other operating systems, and contributes to that “Mac has good UX” vibe. Last time I opened the Windows equivalent, it tried to sell me on Microsoft’s PDF-alike format… and asked me to connect Office365. Another tiny macOS feature I love is that you can drop a file icon on any Open or Save dialog to select the file in the dialog. On other OSs, th…

> Another tiny macOS feature I love is that you can drop a file icon on any Open or Save dialog to select the file in the dialog. On other OSs, this moves the file to the directory shown in the dialog, or does nothing. The reason other OS's don't support that macOS feature is because their open and save dialogue is usable on its own. In my opinion the open and save dialogue is one of the worst designed interfaces on…

What do you not like about the existing dialog?

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#67

Post by rib3ye » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:39 PM UTC

Tarragon wrote: post #5

It's mentioned heavily in the article but I want to emphasize... Preview is the easiest way to slice up and merge PDF files.

The fact that people don't know about this sucks when the feature breaks. Around 2016 it was broken for a year and then after a year, just like that it was fixed.

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#68

Post by PrimeDirective » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:39 PM UTC

All this, and yet you can't move forwards or backwards, when there are other files in the folder. I would be gladly wrong if someone could point out how to do this in Preview

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#69

Post by saagarjha » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:40 PM UTC

maxwelldone wrote: post #59

jitl wrote: post #7

Preview is one of those essential things that sets macOS apart from the other operating systems, and contributes to that “Mac has good UX” vibe. Last time I opened the Windows equivalent, it tried to sell me on Microsoft’s PDF-alike format… and asked me to connect Office365. Another tiny macOS feature I love is that you can drop a file icon on any Open or Save dialog to select the file in the dialog. On other OSs, th…

This is my wish list for preview: 1. Support for h265 video previews (not sure about technical or any other licensing hurdles) 2. Basic playback controls (via keyboard) when viewing video previews - just play, pause, skip would do. I review a ton of videos and I'd often like to pause to take a screenshot or skip to quickly see what's happening in the video. 3. Option to zoom on text files like json, csv etc. Not a bi…

I'm curious why QuickTime Player is not what you want?

Re: Preview, the Mac app people forget about

#70

Post by r00fus » Mon, May 09, 2022, 4:41 PM UTC

SamBam wrote: post #36

Signatures stamps are great, but the signature-creation method is absurd. Ok, there is something cryptographically special about a signature image, which means we can't just import a file, it has to be created while in the program, and it gets stored on the keychain. Fine. But then why not also give us the ability to add an arbitrary stamp from an image? Why have the only method for adding a stamp to a PDF be through…

I think you answered your own question - both of the Apple-allowed methods described require a human in the loop. Your approach could more easily be automated and thus forged.

Why this is a big deal? Not sure but it seems the best bet. Would love to see this confirmed.