running as Administrator. Say it ain’t so!
Yes, running as admin in a virtual machine. Awful, just awful…
I should also mention SmartFlip, which presents a circular arrangement of Windows. It’s also better than Flip3D, but what isn’t, really? Not sure how this approach can take advantage of multiple monitors, though.
The thing to do here is to add in a little background processing on the windows. If you had Switcher+OCR, it still wouldn’t be perfect. But it would kill anything out there right now.
Also, one wonders whether there’s a way for it to hook into the Windows text rendering engine. Switcher could then stream the text for each windwo as it’s rendered. That way, anything that the user has seen in a window, Switcher could search.
Anyway, just two ideas on the topic. I use Linux so this isn’t too helpful to me, but it’s still cool.
I agree that Flip3D is fairly useless. Pretty, but useless. I’ve tried out the newest edition of Switcher and I’m impressed enough to continue using it.
Well done, Bao!
I should have mentioned this in my last comment…
You can still use this very effectively even with a mediocre video card by turning off all the animations. You won’t get the pretty graphics, but the functionality is all there, and is instantaneous.
I have a fast video card, but I disable the animations anyway for the fastest possible experience.
Where is the “Switcher” for Windows XP??
“It looks like Bao Nguyen was reading my mind. Pressing Windows+Tab, then typing “Gmail” is the best thing ever as far as I’m concerned. No”
or maybe the developers of the Gnome Desktop for linux read your mind. Linux users have had this ability for almost 4 years now… Oh yeah and with compiz we have much better window management features that just expose or flip3d (lame).
Nope, Vista (with Aero enabled) only.
Very interesting! I’ve always just used the bottom taskbar to flip around, but I’m only on one monitor (albeit a 1920x1200 one). Switcher looked interested but I didn’t see it as good enough to switch to. With the incremental search, though, it’s definitely worth it. Amazing UI and interface! MS needs to offer this guy a job and buy the product.
Does Expose have incremental search filtering like this? I’m not familiar with it, except that it’s supposed to be very good…
I wrote a short article a year ago (before the release of Vista) about the origins of Flip3d being “marketing driven” as opposed to “usability driven” that you might find interesting:
http://www.brokendigits.com/2006/11/27/windows-vista-and-the-measurement-of-happiness/
Another Switcher tip-- you can use tab or arrow keys to select windows, too. This is very helpful after searching. When I type “inbox”, I get two results and I can quickly arrow left or right to pick the one I want.
As usual, the browser is problematic in this context because it’s a generic container for so many things-- static websites, full blown apps, flash games, messaging, etcetera.
I find that Compiz has some really nifty features for handling lots of windows. The main thing for me is making virtual desktops usable. Before Compiz I couldn’t bring myself to use virtual desktops, because the instant switching between them introduced a huge disorienting visual disconnect. Using the cube and rotate plugins I can now spatially organize things in my head, the feeling that the email client is on the right side and feed reader on the back is so strong I feel I could touch them if I wanted. This combined with multiple monitors effectively means that I have enough desktop space to not have to do much switching. Of course there is the Expos equivalent scale plugin that works really well when I switch between windows on one cube face, because there only are a few windows to switch between. I could talk about this on and on, but the fact is that Compiz is so effective at making window management manageable that without it I feel claustrophobic because the desktop is so cramped. All the quick and fluid animations combined with the ease of moving and resizing windows in Unix makes the desktop experience seem somewhat Minority Report like.
Tabbed interfaces are mainly found in browsers, and the main browser I can think of that gives open and quick access to do something like this is FireFox.
So, I would imagine it would be possible to do something simple like: create a FireFox extension that writes the tab number, page title and URL of your tabs to a text file, like this:
[number]./[page title]./[URL]./ nextitem…
[0]./[Coding Horror: On Expos, Flip3D, and Switcher]./[http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000958.html]
Then, something like Switcher could search the text file for your query, and possibly load up the direct tab with a click.
Or something along those general lines–if technically possible…
What about Instant Viewer that comes with Microsoft’s Intellipoint software? I don’t know if it is possible to use without an MS mouse, but I find it far more useful than Flip3D and/or Alt-Tab. It arranges the open windows in a dynamic grid based on the number open and lets you click the one desired. Since it’s tied to one of my mouse’s alternate buttons, I can switch apps in a second.
Jeff: I know this is primarily a Windows blog, but at least some mention of compiz fusion is in order. I’ve been using compiz for some time now in my Ubuntu install and it blows my mind. I’m sure you’ve seen it already, but check this video again: http://youtube.com/watch?v=E4Fbk52Mk1w
A lot of what you see in the video is admittedly silly eye candy, but the productivity boost that I get from the superb window management in compiz is indeed very non-silly.
I also have a problem with your contradiction with your previous “tabbed browsing” post. Back then (15 days ago…) your main problem with tabbed browsing is that you couldn’t find your gmail tab when looking at thumbnails of your open windows. This is a valid point, and I think we all struggle with it in our own way. But all of a sudden, you say today, “I can now match by any window title, which is good enough”. It just seems odd to me that you give high praise to the incremental filtering search available in Switcher when it fails to address the “go to gmail tab” issue. Am I missing something? Did you change your mind about tabbed browsing?
Just my two cents. First time post here. Keep up the blog, I really enjoy it!
Jeff, I’m a little disappointed. It’s one thing to do proper advertising, which you warned us about and it’s fairly unobtrusive on the blog. It’s another for you to peddle this software and have us believe that you get nothing from your periodic advertisements of it.
Now onto my real gripe – you cited that a big problem with tabbed interfaces is that if a tab was hidden with the content you wanted, you couldn’t find it. Now you turn around and say that this new filtering feature is EXACTLY what you were complaining about, and that it’s somehow fixed your problems, yet then you plainly say “No, I can’t search tab contents”. So what you’re saying is – unless the tab you want is at the foreground of your browser, you won’t be able to find it anyway. In which case, you’re back to having one window open for every site you have open, otherwise your search won’t work.
What’s really solved?
It’s another for you to peddle this software and have us believe that you get nothing from your periodic advertisements of it.
How can I possibly be advertising free software? Bao does suggest that you can donate to UNICEF or Doctors Without Borders if you like.
If I talk about something here, it’s because I like it, or because it’s germane to the topic of the post. That’s the only reason there is, and the only reason there ever will be.
http://insentient.net/Switcher/FAQ.html#Misc_Donate
Now you turn around and say that this new filtering feature is EXACTLY what you were complaining about
It is a search feature for windows on the desktop, which is what I said. I would like it to be extended to work with tabs, if possible, but we have to take baby steps before we can walk.
Also check out the alt-tab task switcher powertoy
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems a little unfair to compare the Flip3D feature to Expose, when it is much, much more akin to the basic alt-tab, on which it has much improved.
I never really use Alt+Tab. I even have the afore mentioned Enso, but I think I just don’t have enough windows open to warrent it.