Double-Double Vision

Nov 5, 2007

Leopard transition, part 2. Here are some further things I have found from my recent switchover:

My USB modem didn’t automatically get set up during the conversion even though it was already setup in Tiger. No option to Answer Now unless Receive Faxes is on – you just have to set the ring count to a high number and use the Answer Now feature in the Menubar. Not sure if this was a problem in Tiger.

Suitcase Fusion refuses to hide on Launch, which it always has done on my system. But now I sometimes have a little trouble making it hide using the keyboard command or the menu item. Plus, I found a tech note on Extensis saying that you need to disable Font Book’s auto font activation (new in Leopard) in Font Book’s preferences for Suitcase Fusion to function properly.

Annoying delays in Mail and other apps that have been plaguing me in Tiger are gone in Leopard, huzzah! A cool new feature for Mail is that dates in messages are smart linked to iCal events, so you just hover the mouse over the date and you can click, edit and add your event to your calendar of choice. The Note feature I mentioned earlier is handy, but cutting and pasting from it to other apps is sometimes problematic. Either it doesn’t work or it tries to maintain it’s internal formatting.

I cannot seem to access my networked PC anymore. Or rather, I can see the files in the Shared Folder, but I don’t have privileges to put files into it. Errr. And I did nothing to change that. It appears that I can only connect as Guest even though I try to sign in as the owner.

The Print Center no longer is a separate application but folded into the Printers & Faxes Preferences Pane. Go there to add/configure new printers, faxes or modems. This isn’t bad, just different.
Apple Updates now works like Windows! Actually, not a bad idea. Apple downloads and sets up the install, and if it needs to restart the system, and you say yes, then it closes everything down and then installs the software, prior to rebooting. Should make installs less likely to encounter problems.
Web Clips. I made my very own Widget last week. Easy. Of course, I had to make it hard on my self, but you don’t have to. Just go to a web page where you have info that you see on a regular basis – stocks, movie listings, cartoon strips, etc. Then click on the Web Clip icon in Safari, use it like a screen shot tool and drag a square around the info then click inside or hit return. Pick a frame and voila! it shows up in Dashboard as a bona-fide Widget. It auto updates itself every time you go into Dashboard.
So currently, my verdict is: Leopard will not stop you from completing your daily activities on your computer. In fact, there are some nice things that you will find fun and useful. But do you have to run out and buy Leopard now? Probably not. And in the end, it might be a nicer experience for you after they have ironed out some of the problems and software developers bring their apps up to speed.

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