10.5 Gripe: Finder QuickTime Controls Gone?

In Tiger (and prior iterations if memory serves) we had the ability to play Audio/Visual material within the Finder - MP3s, movie files, etc.

There was the customary QuickTime bar with the volume slider on the left, next the play/pause button as the graphic shows.



But Apple has decided in their infinite wisdom to take that away from us in Leopard.

Here's a screen shot of a generic MP3 preview in Leopard's Finder (Column View), and one with album art:











Sure we have Quick Look with the ability to play/pause, we have Cover Flow, too ... but why take away simple volume control and leave only the play/stop button?

So in order to control the volume of a file I want to play *w/o opening iTunes* I have to do finger gymnastics on my PowerBook (due to scripts and such I have volume, brightness, etc., using the Fn key with a corresponding F key) - or use the volume slider on the menu bar. But I do not want to turn down the system-wide volume - I need it for other alerts. I want to have more granular control back over individual A/V files in the Finder. Pointless to remove it, Apple.

While the new functionality/album art preview may be eye candy, it fails on functionality. May seem insignificant to some, but it was like a "Quick Look" or "Quick Listen" in Tiger without having to open iTunes.

Is there a way to get the "old" way back in Leopard?

Leopard Quick Look Tip: Increase Viewing Size of PDFs

Quick Look is somewhat of a mixed "blessing" in Leopard.

Some items are simply too small or small enough to be an eye-strain - such as Word, Excel, documents, etc.

I was viewing a PDF and on a whim decided to try "Command +" and voi la, the text size increased accordingly.

"Command -" will decrease it.

Unfortunately I've not found this to work with anything else.

As well, I cannot do a Quick Look of Pages documents? Only see the Pages icon.

I'm still using Pages 1.0.2, so I cannot say if newer versions allow for Quick Look.

Anyone have the newer versions? Can you Quick Look contents?

Leopard: CAPS anomaly fixed

UPDATE: It occurred to me that I had installed TypeIt4Me 3.2 this morning ... I feel like a jerk, but perhaps my faux pa will help someone else. A new feature in TypeIt4Me is "No DOuble CAps". Of course I assumed this was after an expansion, not in the typing of the expansion. Alas, it is in the typing, thus it has fuddled up CAPS in every app. Until I turned it off.

So this entry has turned into a TIP - if your attempts to type words in CAPS is failing, and you have TypeIt4Me 3.2 installed, UNcheck the "No DOuble CAps" option. :-)

Old entry below.

I deserve any frustrations at this point that I get from Leopard for being an early adopter. I know better. But I couldn't resist. Like the monkey getting his fist caught in a jar, here am I, caught with weird issues.

Suffice it to say, I've not had a blue-screen crash, but I have seen the Finder ... or some service fall to its knees a few times requiring a reboot. Odd thing here is that "Force Quit" has not worked much. Those apps I try to FQ kind of look at me and say "yeah, so what?" turn and ignore me.

The real fly in the ointment right now, as odd as this may seem, is typing and using the shift key. This has become a royal pain in the butt. Why? I'm a fairly speedy typer and make a lot of use of the shift key - not just at the beginning of sentences or when typing proper names, but when typing abbreviations like "PDF' (which I suppose is proper), or "GPS", or to CAP a word for emphasis.

In Tiger, and in XP, and in Vista, and in every other OS, and on every typewriter I know of, when you hold down the shift key, every letter you type will be in CAPS until you let go (assuming you've not pressed the CAPS LOCK key).

But not in Leopard. I only get the first letter in Caps ... if I hold shift down (like now) to type "GPS" I get "Gps" - you see, only the G is in CAPs.

So I figure letting go of Shift for the next letter, then quickly pressing before I type it will give me a capital P... but no. It is still lower case. Repeating that will sometimes give me a capital "P".

Same thing goes with punctuation. I type two quotes in a row and I get "' - not always, but enough that my typing speed is no longer in the 80+ wpm range.

I've looked at the keyboard prefs, and anywhere else I can think of, but I come up zeros.

Is anyone else having this problem? Occurs on my system in every single app - even here in Firefox as I write this entry. Happens in text input dialog boxes from AppleScript, you name it, it happens.

Apple cannot release a 10.5.x upgrade fast enough in my book.

In case you were wondering, I did an Erase and Install, then selectively restored my data (not using a backup program) as well as selectively copying or installing applications from backup or a new .dmg.