Whilst I’m used to configuring my computers so that they give me as easy a ride as possible, there are a few issues which just grate on me too much to keep quiet. So, I thought I might share some of the worst.
Chrome Bookmark Manager
Why doesn’t Chrome have a keyboard shortcut for bookmark manager. Yeah, I know you can try Alt + E and B but that doesn’t quite cut it as an easy shortcut. Bookmarking the bookmark manager and adding it to the bookmark toolbar is another option but again, there should be a better default option.
Accidentally deleted bookmarks
Why does Firefox and Chrome make it so difficult to retrieve an accidentally deleted bookmark? Yes, I know there are ways of doing it, but they are far, far too complicated and long-winded. And you shouldn’t have to turn to Google for help just to ‘undelete’ a file. Don’t Mozilla and Google know how many trigger-happy computer users there are out there?
Google Docs - page numbers
It always seems a case of two steps forward, one step back with Google Docs. Whilst it’s really getting there now in terms of being a viable solution for many, it still falls woefully short in a few areas. For instance, they’ve finally sorted out some of the stupidity around lack of footnote functionality and added a customisable dictionary, but what’s up with page numbers in documents? You actually have to go in an ‘activate’ them under the print settings menu prior to printing each time. It seems there’s no way to have them inserted permanently in the document itself. That’s just all kinds of crazy.
‘Save as’ - default keyboard shortcut
I wish programs had a default keyboard shortcut for 'Save As'. I know there are ways of creating shortcuts on a per program basis but something as commonly used really deserves its own shortcut by default. For what it’s worth, I love the Photoshop shortcut for this and find myself inadvertently doing it in other programs - Control + Shift + S is a very comfortable shortcut for your left hand.
(Not-so-fun fact: on my HP work laptop, this shortcut brings up a very-slow-to-launch HP System Information app, just to really, really annoy me).
Cycling through pictures using the Windows Photo Gallery
Why doesn’t the up and down arrow work the same as left and right for scrolling through images in Windows Photo Viewer in Vista and Windows 7. It does in XP 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer'. If you accidentally hit the up or down arrow, you’ve got to take your hands of the keyboard and go and click one of the buttons for next or previous before you can begin cycling through with the left and right arrow keys again. Utter madness.
Footnote Frenzy
In MS Word, if you highlight text in the footnotes section and get some ‘blank space’ in your selection as well, when you try and delete that text, you get presented with an infuriating pop-up message, "this action is not valid for footnotes". I don’t use footnotes nearly as much as i did during my LLM thankfully, as this annoyance nearly drove me out of my mind.
PDF pasting mess
Copying and pasting text from PDF - seriously screws with the formatting. This has been a nightmare since, well, forever. It’s just awful.
Can't help with the other ones but for the Chrome bookmark manager problem check out this.
ReplyDeleteIt's a browser extension which allows you to set customisable keyboard shortcuts. Just choose your shortcut and link it to the URL of the Bookmark Manager. It won't work on the startup screen and a few other pages but should be fine everywhere else.
Hope this helps.