Any new OS can take a few days to get used to. But Lion especially introduced a few changes that have left us scratching our heads. Don’t pull your mane out—here’s how to fix them.
Just because Apple finds it natural doesn’t mean you will.
By default, Lion reversed the way you scroll content in long windows, to match iOS. They call it “natural scrolling,” but it sure does feel weird. Two fingers scrolling up actually moves your view in the window down, as if you were pushing the content up in the window to see what’s below. It’s very iOS-like, but then again in iOS you don’t push one finger around a trackpad to position the cursor -- you just tap things. So if you can’t get used to “one-finger scroll up moves cursor up; two-finger scroll up moves content down,” just turn off Natural Scrolling in System Preferences > Trackpad (or Mouse, if you’re not using a trackpad of any kind).
This tab and the Sidebar tab have lots of options.
Your hard drive and mounted volumes no longer show up on your Desktop in Lion, and the default view when you open a new Finder window is the new All My Files. Head to Finder > Preferences for a list of checkboxes that can put your drives back on your Desktop (and/or in your sidebar), and while you’re there you can change the default for new Finder windows back to your Home folder, Documents folder, or whatever you prefer.
Every gesture has a helpful demo video.
If you had tweaked your trackpad gestures (tap to click, and so on), Lion may have untweaked them a little. Head to System Preferences > Trackpad and examine all three tabs to set things up the way you like. While you’re there, watch the demo videos for all the new and changed gestures in Lion. Our whole staff loves them (well, we’re a bit divided on the Natural Scrolling thing), but it helps to get to know them first.
You’ll find lots of useful options in System Preferences > General, too.
Lion uses a larger font size in the Finder sidebar than Snow Leopard. But if it bugs you, it’s an easy fix -- just don’t go looking in the Finder preferences. Instead, open System Preferences > General, and set the Sidebar Icon Size to small.
“When the lights go down in the city…”
System Preferences > Dock has a new option, to ditch the little blue indicator lights that appear by the Dock icons of applications you have open. By default they’re still on, as they were in Snow Leopard. And we like it that way, as a visual reminder of which apps are taking up resources. But if you prefer, you can uncheck “Show indicator lights for open applications” and never see ’em again.
Lion’s kind of a show-off, with more fancy animations than Pixar. If you get bored of them, you can find a checkbox to kill the bouncing Dock icons as applications open in System Preferences > Dock. Apple apps like Safari and Preview have a new-window animation that you might find cheesy -- to stop that one, open Terminal and type this command (all on one line), then press Return.
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO
You’ll have to reopen affected apps to see the change, and to get the animations back, repeat the Terminal command but replace NO with YES.
Mail’s Send and Reply animations can likewise be turned off in Terminal, with these commands. (Each line below is a single command, so type it on one line and press Return.)
defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableReplyAnimations -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableSendAnimations -bool YES
Again, restart Mail to see the difference, and to turn the animations back on, just repeat either of those commands with NO instead of YES. And one more: if the space-changing animation annoys you (we actually dig that one), you can turn it off with these two Terminal commands (type the first, starting with “defaults” and press Return, and then type the second, “killall Dock” and press Return again).
defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces-swoosh-animation-off -bool YES
killall Dock
To get the space-switching animation back, repeat those two commands, but in the first one, change YES to NO.
Ray Dittmer
January 30, 2012 at 6:25pm
About that Snow Leopard startup flashdrive. I purchased an iMac recently with Lion installed. After grinding my gears a bit on the migration of old data (I was running Tiger on a iMac G5) and finding that only firewire migration would work, I solved that problem. Since I did not begin this adventure expecting a Lion install on my iMac, I needed a way to preserve my legacy app data. I tried your solution of a Snow Leopard flash drive. No go, Lion will no even let me boot from the Snow Leopard install DVD. Apparently, if you buy a Mac with Lion installed, there is no way to even revert to a previous OS on an external drive. Help!
ndor@gci.net
August 27, 2011 at 1:47pm
I can' read my old Netscape files with the Lion.
I can't open any files that used Power PC applications in Lion either.
IF, I had know that I could not read those files which I access about every day, then I would not have downloaded Lion.
However, I did download Lion, so, I asked what Apple, the best computer company in the world, is doing to fix that problem.
The said you can bring in your iMac to an Apple store, they will uninstall the Lion, and then re-install Snow Leopard.
I am 72 years old and it is hard for me to get around. It would be easier for me to get a fix that Apple should provide so that all versions of the MAC OS are backward compatible.
After all, all my files, since 1984, on Macs, have been done using Mac OS.
Best regards,
Nels Anderson, Jr.
Anchorage, Alaska
bhargis75
August 16, 2011 at 11:08am
Um you don't need a third party app to use a key command for Launchpad. Just go to system preferences-keyboard and set up a key command for Launchpad. Easy as pie.
iMac.27
August 15, 2011 at 9:57pm
in iCal section you say...
Creating events is easier, too, thanks to natural language input that can turn “Apple Genius appointment tomorrow 2pm” into an item on your schedule. Faster, simpler to use, more functional? Yeah, we can make time for that.
Um. I can't find this feature anywhere. How do I talk to my iCal?
And the Comment:
I TOTALLY disagree will William's post. Lion is a VERY good OS. $29 is a small about of money, and who the hell needs a disc? You could have made a disc before you installed it if you really wanted one.
If you waited for Lion to release before getting a TrackPad, that's on you. I got one the day it came out.
However, with Snow Leopard, it was nearly useless. Now, with Lion, I use my TrackPad 99% of the time, it truly is "Magical."And why would you buy a new OS without researching it a little FIRST? You bought it then "disabled all the useless crap" ??? Why the hell did you buy it in the first place? I do not understand all the people who go spend money on Lion and then try to make it "look and feel" like Snow Leopard... ummm, Just STAY with Snow Leopard?? Duhhhhh.
I find that ANYONE who buys a product, just to turn around and b*tch and Moan about it, is an idiot. (not a personal attack on William, encompasses EVERYONE that does this)
Why not watch the Keynote on Apples web site? ( it was only on there for what, 5 months before release)
(and with the 384kbps download speed, it should have finished within a month of release)
Why not go to a store and try it first? (they sell apple at best buy even if you don't have an apple store near by)
Why not find out what would and wouldn't be compatible BEFORE you install something like that?
Then, on top of everything else, rock a 384Kbps internet connection in the year 2011? and,... wait for it..... you b*tch about how long it took to download??? WFT? My iPhone 3G downloads faster than that.Last, what did you expect for $29 bucks? a disc and massage with happy ending?
Microsoft windows 7 Retail is $250 bucks. $29 sounds WAY better. Even if I pay $29 4 times for 4 upgrades like Lion, I STILL come out cheaper then ONE update from MS.
If Apple would have charged you $129, gave you a disc and radically change the entire OS where it didn't even remotely look, feel or act like the old Apple OS you were used to, you would not have been any more happy. You would have complained about how apple went TOO FAR!Dude, you should get a Dell....
maclover
August 16, 2011 at 8:37am
If you press the "+" button I think it is in the top left, you can add a new event by just typing a sentence basically. There is no speech to text feature, yet :D
William R Grubaugh
August 15, 2011 at 6:09pm
Except for the increased security I think Lion is pure CRAP! 29 dollars plus tax 8.25% for some data from their server (huge profit for Apple) and at 384 Kbps, hours too download more inconvenience and money, Have to get third party App to make Disc which Apple should have provided, more inconvenience and money, or pay Apple another 69 dollars plus tax 8.25% for USB Flash Drive, more inconvenience and money - 69 dollars plus tax 8.25% for the NOT so Magic Track Pad, more inconvenience and money - must purchase new Applications, Apple hopes from their App Store to replace now obsolete Apps because of Lion, more inconvenience and money - Now more inconvenience and money trying to figure out how to disable all of the worthless Crap you just payed way to much money for, or purchase/acquire more third party Apps to make some of your newly acquired Crap work! Apples greed and imposition are shocking and shameless. I may never upgrade another OSX from Apple or IBM I should say, which is most fitting considering their new leader and business plan! My loyalty and confidence in Apple is waning rapidly. Truly sad, I used to think of them as a different type of Company, but after discovering all of their China connections and now all their recent missteps, the honeymoon is over!!!
brandonwalkermedia
August 15, 2011 at 11:58pm
um you don't have to buy a third party app, you use what Apple gave you (you know the ability to burn!) P.s. i downloaded it at 10MBPS it seems your wifi (if you did even download it) is stone age. Also i have not had a single app not be compatible (other then not supporting new futures like full screen yet) and only 3 of them have updated for lion. And last China is a great place to make connections, think about it over 1 billion people to sell to (not to mention lower taxes) bottom line yes there here to make money! same as when you go to work and service others!
BTW seems like your a PC user thats never tried a Mac (as you seem to know nothing of it)
William R Grubaugh
August 16, 2011 at 5:28pm
All I'll give you, which is to much! You're a punk smug moronic idiot who doesn't know your a%s from a hole in the ground! READ AND SEARCH, THERE'S A BIG WIDE WORLD OUT THERE, THAT"S NOT YOURS, BUBBLE BOY! Damn it, I gave you to much. Oh Well???
trianoaj
August 16, 2011 at 11:16am
william_r_grubaugh you my friend are FULL OF CRAP!!
You talk about issues that do not exist:
Your internet connection is CRAP! My download with FIOS took all of 20 minutes.
You dont need Third Party anything to make a Lion install disk or Thumb Drive!!
Try a new site called google, ooh wait since your internet connection is CRAP! you cant even do that. Only 1 app that I had in snow leopard am i still waiting for its dev. to make compatable with Lion. All 57 other work just fine.Few people might not like the new looks or features in Lion, but the word FEW is even assuming to many! If you had a mac you would know that Lion has made alot of old processes and menus more seeamless and flowing.
Open your mind, your eyes and your wallet while your at it (get better internet service) and realize that the WINBLOWS PIECE OF CRAP! that you are implying your willing to "leave Mac os x for" is a god send for use TRUE mac users, it actually filters all the STUCK ON CRAP users out of our community!
William R Grubaugh
August 16, 2011 at 5:15pm
I live in far mid-western Texas in the middle of know where and have three choices for ISP's. The highest I can get is 768 Kbps' it's to pricey for me, so I pay $32.00 for 384 Kbps, and am thankful, I don't have to pay the same for Dial-Up. I am feed up with the comments from smug ignorant morons about 384 Kbps. Caged Metropolitans who know nothing, but the Rank and File. Truth and Objectivity! I greatly enjoy my intel iMac circa late 2008, Snow Leopard 10.6.8, after the eighth update they finally got it right and now every thing works like it should. But where to go from here, not sure at this point, for I have a lot of money invested in Apple products and Third party Apple products. It's smug morons like you and Apples new Business plan, that will destroy Apple. Read the reviews, there all over the internet, I'm not alone Moron!
