Really trivial stuff that bugs you

[Delvo]

This is reminding me of how painful it is to watch some other people use a computer. It's amazing how many people (especially the younger ones) do things the hard way: using the mouse instead of "Tab" to get from one typing field to the next, using the mouse instead of Home, End or arrows, or Control+arrows to move around in text, backspacing over good text to fix an error and then needing to retype it all instead of jumping to the error and then jumping back (even with a mouse!), creating parentheses by putting the right thumb on the right Shift button and twisting the same hand around to get another finger to the top row buttons instead of using the left Shift button...

[Jens]

The thing about drag and drop is that I have to keep the folders I'm dragging and dropping to open. Since what I was doing was sorting pictures, that means at least four folders open. And that's only when all that's in the original folder is pictures of the kids. If there's anything else, that's more folders to put those pictures into.

This may be partly what you're talking about, but I always find it annoying in Windoze that it's easy to copy a file from a folder into a subfolder, but copying it from the subfolder back into the parent folder is a pain.

[SeanF]

The issue is, I sort my pictures of my kids by how old they are when the picture is taken. One folder for each kid, plus one for pictures of both of them. One folder inside that for each year, and then one folder inside that for each month. It makes it easy for me to find any given picture. It does not make it easy to sort them these days.

Yeah, it's a problem when the folders you want to move into are separated like that.

In that case, I'd do it as a two-step process. Separate the photos into the main folder for each kid, since those three folders would be right next to each other in the navigation tree. Then I'd go into each of those three folders and move the photos from there into the appropriate year folder. If you sort the photos regularly, they'd all go into the same year, and even if you don't, you can sort them by date and move an entire year's worth at once.

Not ideal, by any stretch, but workable.

[DonM435]

If I'm moving stuff from a different drive, I like to gather all of it in a working folder on the target drive (may have a long wait), and only after that move the files around to sort them into different subfolders. The second stage goes more quickly. Also, having the original as backup is a good thing, in case you should lose something in the process.

[Extravoice]

This is reminding me of how painful it is to watch some other people use a computer. It's amazing how many people (especially the younger ones) do things the hard way: using the mouse instead of "Tab" to get from one typing field to the next, using the mouse instead of Home, End or arrows, or Control+arrows to move around in text, backspacing over good text to fix an error and then needing to retype it all instead of jumping to the error and then jumping back (even with a mouse!), creating parentheses by putting the right thumb on the right Shift button and twisting the same hand around to get another finger to the top row buttons instead of using the left Shift button...

What? You in some kinda hurry or somethin’?


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[jamesabrown]

This is reminding me of how painful it is to watch some other people use a computer. It's amazing how many people (especially the younger ones) do things the hard way: using the mouse instead of "Tab" to get from one typing field to the next, using the mouse instead of Home, End or arrows, or Control+arrows to move around in text, backspacing over good text to fix an error and then needing to retype it all instead of jumping to the error and then jumping back (even with a mouse!), creating parentheses by putting the right thumb on the right Shift button and twisting the same hand around to get another finger to the top row buttons instead of using the left Shift button...

Agreed. I once watched a woman (older than me) type. In order to type a capital letter, she would hit the Caps Lock key, type the letter itself, then hit the Caps Lock key a second time to get back to lower-case. Every single capital letter required an extra keystroke. It was if if she didn't know what the Shift key was even for

[Extravoice]

Do not eat blueberries immediately after brushing your teeth unless you *really* like sour things.




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[grant hutchison]

Agreed. I once watched a woman (older than me) type. In order to type a capital letter, she would hit the Caps Lock key, type the letter itself, then hit the Caps Lock key a second time to get back to lower-case. Every single capital letter required an extra keystroke. It was if if she didn't know what the Shift key was even for

A generation has been forced to teach themselves to type, so you do see some interesting approaches.
But are kids nowadays receiving formal lessons in keyboard skills? It seems like they should be, but I saw a 20-year-old typing on a full-size QWERTY keyboard with his thumbs the other day, as if he'd transferred his text-messaging skills to a different medium.

Grant Hutchison

[Hornblower]

One of my pet peeves is where some data entry apps force you to use the mouse to access some fields or icons where it would be quicker to use the tab key to go to them and keep going if they were not needed. Keeping my hands on the keyboard for a sequence of entries is a time saver. I can tab over several fields in less time than it takes to switch to the mouse and then get the pointer where I need to go, especially if the target is a really tiny icon.

[Hornblower]

A generation has been forced to teach themselves to type, so you do see some interesting approaches.
But are kids nowadays receiving formal lessons in keyboard skills? It seems like they should be, but I saw a 20-year-old typing on a full-size QWERTY keyboard with his thumbs the other day, as if he'd transferred his text-messaging skills to a different medium.

Grant Hutchison

I remember 40 years ago watching one of our administrative clerks typing on an old fashioned typewriter with only his index fingers for the letters and numbers.

[grant hutchison]

I remember 40 years ago watching one of our administrative clerks typing on an old fashioned typewriter with only his index fingers for the letters and numbers.

"Hunt and peck", we used to call that.

Grant Hutchison

[jamesabrown]

One of my pet peeves is where some data entry apps force you to use the mouse to access some fields or icons where it would be quicker to use the tab key to go to them and keep going if they were not needed. Keeping my hands on the keyboard for a sequence of entries is a time saver. I can tab over several fields in less time than it takes to switch to the mouse and then get the pointer where I need to go, especially if the target is a really tiny icon.

Agreed.

In database forms, that's something called Tab Order, meaning which field becomes active with each strike of the Tab key. Good UI design is about identifying the Tab Order in a logical flow (left to right, top to bottom, etc., the usual flow in English-based forms.)

On one website I have to log into for work, Tab Order 1 is the username field, Tab Order 2 is the password field, and Tab Order 3 is the Login button. Except that Tab Order 4 is the checkbox that you have to click (either with the mouse or with the space bar) agreeing to some security warning or other. So if you enter your username (TAB) password (TAB) and 'Enter' then the login fails, because you didn't 'agree' to the pointless security warning. (Do you think a malicious user is going to be thwarted by it?)

So a hands-on-keyboard user like you and me, Hornblower, would have to do the following:

Username (TAB) Password (TAB) (TAB) Space Bar to check the pointless box (SHIFT-TAB) to backtrack to the Login button (Enter).

When it should be:

Username (TAB) Password (TAB) Space Bar (TAB) Enter

What I suspect happened is that the original form only had the username and password, and someone decided the check box needed to be added. And the UI Designer didn't want to squeeze it in between the password field and the Login button, so he put it after the Login button.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

In a couple of days having to choose a pair of frames for the new glasses, I don't think I have ever made the right choice.

[PetersCreek]

The issue is, I sort my pictures of my kids by how old they are when the picture is taken. One folder for each kid, plus one for pictures of both of them. One folder inside that for each year, and then one folder inside that for each month. It makes it easy for me to find any given picture. It does not make it easy to sort them these days.

It may exceed your needs/desires but I use Adobe Lightroom to manage my images right from the camera. After importing and adjusting the images, they go into folders named for broad categories like People, Landscapes, etc. I can then assign the images to one or multiple collections/albums, define keywords, add metadata, and even rate them. These assignments don't change image locations or create necessary extra copies. I can sort, browse, and filter images by almost any attribute.

I bought my version before Adobe adopted their Creative Cloud subscription model, of which I am not a fan. If you can find a previous version, it might be worth considering.

[PetersCreek]

A generation has been forced to teach themselves to type, so you do see some interesting approaches.
But are kids nowadays receiving formal lessons in keyboard skills? It seems like they should be, but I saw a 20-year-old typing on a full-size QWERTY keyboard with his thumbs the other day, as if he'd transferred his text-messaging skills to a different medium.

Grant Hutchison

It depends on the particular school/district but yes, "keyboarding" classes are pretty common. I took good ol' fashioned "typing" back in junior high school on both manual and electric machines and it stuck with me. Shortly after moving to Alaska, my keyboard skills were tested during a job application and I clocked in at 80+ wpm. I and the examiner were surprised and impressed, respectively. I suppose I was just in good form that day.

[Jim]

"Hunt and peck", we used to call that.

Grant Hutchison

We called it The Biblical System. "Seek, and ye shall find."

[Torsten]

We called it The Biblical System. "Seek, and ye shall find."

We called it HPE: Hunt, Peck, and Erase.

When word processing became the common method of "typing" a document, I revised this to HPB: Hunt, Peck, and Backspace.

[Torsten]

Agreed. I once watched a woman (older than me) type. In order to type a capital letter, she would hit the Caps Lock key, type the letter itself, then hit the Caps Lock key a second time to get back to lower-case. Every single capital letter required an extra keystroke. It was if if she didn't know what the Shift key was even for

After my father had a stroke, which left his left arm paralyzed, he used this method when he composed emails. It was painful to watch, but I was impressed by his persistence.

[SeanF]

We called it The Biblical System. "Seek, and ye shall find."

We called it the Columbus method - find a key and land on it.

[Grey]

I liked XP. I could make it do what I wanted. I resisted Win 10 for as long as I could but our company platform had to change in order to provide ongoing support.

I liked XP, too. I've yet to find anything that I feel Windows 10 does any better.

[grant hutchison]

I liked XP, too. I've yet to find anything that I feel Windows 10 does any better.

I still like XP. I'm running it in VirtualBox on two machines, and native on a third.

Grant Hutchison

[grant hutchison]

The issue is, I sort my pictures of my kids by how old they are when the picture is taken. One folder for each kid, plus one for pictures of both of them. One folder inside that for each year, and then one folder inside that for each month. It makes it easy for me to find any given picture. It does not make it easy to sort them these days.

A thing you can do is to rename the files - [KidName]-[year]-[month].jpg, and then keep them all in one big folder. That's searchable and sortable. There are freeware utilities that can help you do the hard work of renaming what you've already got.

Grant Hutchison

[The Backroad Astronomer]

My internet keeps going in and out.

[PetersCreek]

A thing you can do is to rename the files - [KidName]-[year]-[month].jpg, and then keep them all in one big folder. That's searchable and sortable. There are freeware utilities that can help you do the hard work of renaming what you've already got.

Grant Hutchison

That's similar to a file naming convention I use: [filename]-[YYYYMMDD].

I use it at home and at work, for files like photos, tax returns, reports, and scanned documents for travel vouchers, e.g.; "Receipts - PETERSCREEK 20180517.pdf"
If I'm consistent, all files with an identical [filename] root will be listed in proper date order when the directory is sorted by file name.

[Hornblower]

This is reminding me of how painful it is to watch some other people use a computer. It's amazing how many people (especially the younger ones) do things the hard way: using the mouse instead of "Tab" to get from one typing field to the next, using the mouse instead of Home, End or arrows, or Control+arrows to move around in text, backspacing over good text to fix an error and then needing to retype it all instead of jumping to the error and then jumping back (even with a mouse!), creating parentheses by putting the right thumb on the right Shift button and twisting the same hand around to get another finger to the top row buttons instead of using the left Shift button...

My bold. That depends on where the typo is. If I catch it after just a few keystrokes past it, I find it quicker to backspace a few strokes and retype than to jump through hoops to move the cursor. If it is more than one short word, by all means it is quicker to do whatever it takes to jump to the spot.

[grant hutchison]

Not sure how trivial this actually is.
My new car comes with "Front Assist" as standard - initially sounding an alarm if you approach a vehicle in front too quickly, then dabbing the brakes, then ramping up braking steadily. So far, there's been no occasion for it to make itself known to me.
But for the last couple of days I've been driving back and forth along a very narrow, winding road (single track with passing places) in the west of Scotland, with a wall on one side and a body of water on the other. You of course have to go slowly around the blind corners with the wall on the inside of the curve, but you can negotiate the curves with the wall on the outside fairly quickly, because you have a sightline so that you can see whether the road ahead is clear. Except the Front "Assist" kept interpreting the wall on the outside of the curve as another vehicle ahead, sounding an alarm and dabbing the brakes just as I started to steer the curve.
Not at all happy about that.

Grant Hutchison

[The Backroad Astronomer]

I want pet assist, a camera that will track animals running and sometimes barking at your car.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

My internet keeps going in and out.

Life can go on without but it is nice to know when you getting paid for job so you get a few things to get some jobs done,

Also doing some math and finding you are off by 1 and not know it is you or the text book.

[KaiYeves]

Referring to knights as “Sir [Lastname]” instead of “Sir [Firstname]” is a common mistake, but it’s annoying to see an official educational handout from the Volvo Ocean Race refer to Sir Peter Blake as “Sir Blake”.

[pzkpfw]

This is reminding me of how painful it is to watch some other people use a computer. ...

The other one that gets me is people not knowing that highlighted text will be replaced if more typing happens.

So (e.g.) all the text in an entry box is highlighted, but the person has to carefully delete all the text before typing the new text they could have just started typing.