The ape should give you:

a.) an option to use new or old labels
b.) customize the colors (including the new labels)
c.) maybe add more labels (so you'd be able to have say 10 diff labels)

Joe

Damn great... maybe I'll be able to upgrade to Panther without bleeding eyes sooner as expected...

OT here:

But Slava, how did you get your Home folder to be Dreamcatcher? I thought OS X doesn't allow home names to be uppercase?

Also, looking good on the labels :-)

His Home folder is actually a Home partition.. and since OS X doesn't place any such restrictions of capitalization on hard disk partitions it doesn't matter.

Nice indeed! Apple's implementation is FUGLY (and confusing... how many times have I dropped a file on a folder label's extended blue line, assuming it would drop the file into the folder, only to lose the file into the parent folder and have to undo to fish it out?)

I don't think I'd want to introduce new label colors though, as I'd be concerned with backwards compatibility. I was impressed that Labels X worked seamlessly with Apple's OS 9 labels and the "native" Panther labels when they came out.

Slava - Looks great... I was forced to resort to editing the actual PNG files to lighten up Apple's implementation. That helped, but your old-style look is still much better. I'd vote for being able to edit/name the colors too. Thanks.

Lovely. Much more subtle than Apple's current garish labels. Question: Does Labels X allow sorting by Label to work properly? In Panther (without Labels X), sorting by Label puts unlabeled files first; reversing the sort order puts labeled files first but then inexplicably sub-sorts in reverse alphabetical order. Wacky.

Not bad, but I suppose I'm in the minority. I much prefer Apple's way of labels with the icon being untouched and the text itself having the label.

Not much point in having a beautiful photo-realistic icon if you are going to tint it some color.

I think Apple's implementation of labels is better then OS 9. They didn't want to interfere with the pretty icons, they wanted to make it more noticeable, and most importantly it WORKS in list and column views (unlike OS 9.)

I like Apple's new lables, I just wish I could make my own colors though.

I can't wait for the update (but I will ;-) as the current apple implementation is annoying especially in list mode as mentioned by others here. Why they don't allow for preferences on how it works is beyond me.

thanks for the good news

Kevan

Ok, i'll ask.

What is the big problem with labels in finder's list view? Is there something I'm missing?

I've got the finder in list view with several documents and folders with labels. And I just don't see how they are implemented poorly or hard to read.

I'm asking for specific information with examples. If you are just going to say 'Finder labels suck' then don't reply. If they are so poor then please show me.

thanks.

I was one of those people waiting first in line when Unsanity (specifically Slava), was working on Labels X, back when Apple decided to eliminate them with the introduction of OSX.

Slava seemed to follow the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." So he had to put back what Apple decided to fix.

Then came Panther and Apple's warped sense of design (or humor) by introducing the most obnoxious form of Labels I've ever seen (or can work with). Life is once again miserable.

I haven't beta'ed Label X's newest version (I'm usually invited to) but I hope it put things back they way they were and just colorize the icon and not the entire freaking line (in list view). For so many reasons, that was pure insanity on Apple's part.

I guess this is why we need a company like Unsanity to undo the insanity.

Jeff
Loyal Unsanity Fan

jeff: apple didn't decide to eliminate labes with Mac OS X, they just didn't get them implimented yet, semantics maybe... but many think that Apple specifically removed features, it just isn't true, they just had not been added to the new operating system yet.

>What is the big problem with labels in finder's list view?
>Is there something I'm missing?

Do this: Open a folder, set to list view, apply different labels to different files, select some files (some labelled and some unlabelled). look away for 30 seconds. look back. quick, which ones are labelled with which color? which ones are selected?

Maybe you can tell quickly, but for me, it's just a huge mess.

jeff said " Apple decided to eliminate them with the introduction of OSX."

Apple never decided to eliminate them. If Apple wanted to eliminate labels then they would have removed labels from the file system.

Apple just hadn't implemented them. I know. It should have been the first thing they did. After all it wasn't as if they had to rewrite their OS to make it work with a completely different OS.

Oh wait, that is exactly what they did.

Labels were VERY low on the priority scale. And understandably so.

LMK, ok I did it.

I have little label 'dots' on the left of each file so I really didn't have any problems seeing the labels when selected or not.

However, when I switched away and the finder became 'inactive' the selected items turned grey and that was confusing when I used the grey label color.

But I don't see how it is bad unless I use the grey label color. Then it can be a little confusing.

Here's the basic visual problem. Colored icons are easier on the eyes, while colored lables are garish. In Finder windows, list view, the entire line of columns is colored, vice the icon; that, IMHO, is extremely garish. I've been after Apple to remedy this and provide a user setting to restore the OS 9 and earlier and the LabelsX functionality, the past four months, but haven't seen it implemented. Slava, keep working on it. I can't wait until you release the new LabelsX.

Ok David, perhaps it's not a problem for you but for me and apparently for others it is quite confusing when you have list views with many labels and a discontinuous selection. Of course if you look carefully you can distinguish what is selected and what is labeled but at first glance it is confusing . One can like them or not but I would say this is simply bad UI design. Period.
Great work Unsanity.
Could be nice if in the same vein they could bring back the alternate tints for lines (like in itunes and others) that ease the reading.

Go, Slava, go!

it would be nice if labels x could give a choice of having os9-like labels or colored dots left of file icon like panther has when file is highlihted. i like the dots much better than colored icons (they do look less esthetic when tinted).

Any news on a release date ;-)

Kevan

I personally love colored icons - though, I don't see what the screenshot above shows - I see the colored icons OK, but I *also* still see colored item label text (which I *don't* want to see). Might I have to completely uninstall traces of a previous Labels X installation, to *get rid of* item? Also, I'm just assuming that, in the screenshot above, it's standard Labels X 1.5, on 10.3 - but if not, if I need a newer build of Labels X, where would I get that?

Looking forward to 'OS 9 style' labels, real soon now.

How about posting a beta version for us...huh...please

;-)

kevan

Actually, I'm all in favor of bugging Unsanity to work on my faves, and not as much, on my non-faves.

If fact, as Brian said about a month ago when I'd emailed him and Slava again about Labels X 1.6, "Keep on us though - it motivates us to get it done quicker! :)"

So, here's another nudge: Please finish the work on Labels X 1.6 to finally get it working in 10.3. You gave us a teaser screenshot back in December ( http://www.unsanity.org/archives/000296.php ) but have left us hanging ever since; 4+ months and counting...

Personally, I can live with the way OS X handles fonts. And if not, there are several other utilities out there already, that can improve the situation (i.e. FontReserve, etc.). And the current version of FontCard is "done" and functional.

However, nobody else that I'm aware of, has made any effort to fix OS X's ugly implementation of labels... except Unsanity, with Labels X. But it doesn't... quite... work yet in 10.3, the way it was planned - and previewed for us (bet you're regretting ever posting that screenshot, eh Slava? ;))

So, Unsanity programmers - I'll appeal to your sense of skillz, ego, badassness - whatever: really, how hard could it be to just... finish Labels X? You're up to the challenge, right? Ain't no big thing at all..... right? Please, prove me right.

Please finish the job on this poor not-quite-functional orphan of a project (but which will be dearly loved when done) before launching into a major overhaul of another project, which, in its current form, at least works with 10.3 (which is more than we can say about Labels X).

All the old Labels X 10.2 stuff w/ the command line tool, and the 'extra, faux' column can just be thrown out, or code-forked into the past - all I care about now, now that Apple has actually finally 'revealed' the hidden actual Labels column in 10.3, is fixing its hideous look and feel. Just take away the color from the item name text, and put it on the item's icon, like in the teaser screenshot (and in OS 9), and I'll be happy.

Thanks for reading. Originally posted at: http://www.unsanity.org/archives/000334.php , this has also been posted here, to encourage any further discussion of Labels X to happen here, where it belongs...