hidden treasures
After last issue’s tutorials about what’s new in macOS 10.12.4 and iOS 10.3, I want to talk about Apple’s release notes for software updates.
Where Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro are concerned, Apple often provides detailed information about what’s changed. It does pretty well at detailing the content of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote updates, too. Where it falls down is in documenting small but helpful changes to its operating systems and other apps.
With macOS 10.12.4, it seemed that Night Shift was the sole improvement that’s visible to users. IT professionals also get a good overview of security issues addressed by each software update, but it turns out macOS 10.12.4 has at least one undisclosed user-facing feature.
If you often download several files at once, you can drag Safari’s downloads list away from its main window into a separate one that stays open – enabling you to observe progress without the list getting in the way of the page you’re reading, or it closing when you click something on that page. It’s nothing hugely groundbreaking, but that’s beside the point.
With every system update, I wondered whether Apple had reintroduced that feature, which disappeared years ago. I’d try it only to sigh in mild yet expected disappointment – until now!
The window doesn’t behave quite as it used to; if you close its windowed form, it’ll be reattached to the main window when you reopen the list. That’s fair, I think, as it avoids any risk you’ll lose track of its position. You can simply tear it off again.
Days after macOS 10.12.4’s release, Apple updated the page about how Safari’s downloads list works ( apple.co/2q5rA3E) – but without mention of this new behavior. That makes me wonder what other helpful tweaks go unnoticed and undocumented.
Apple should better document these changes, no matter how small they seem. Not doing so is unhelpful to its customers, and somewhat disrespectful to the developers who implement them.