Today's overcrowded software interfaces are leading to some vision problems. Perhaps these tips will help
With so many Mac users entering the 40-to-60 age group, eye strain is a growing issue. The American Eye Association says that at least two of every three 40-somethings will experience some form of visual impairment by age 50.
Hardware and software vendors aren't helping much. Everyone seems to be pushing for higher screen resolution these days, and the software has ballooned with a barrage of tool bars, palettes and helpers. They think that by "dumbing" down the software with so many on-screen, visual helpers, they'll sell more product to a wider audience. This may be true, but for senior computer users (who probably don't need all the dummy stuff in the first place) this becomes a visual nightmare.
Today's interfaces have so many icons, toolbars, and other interface widgets it's becoming more and more difficult to actually see the content. For the visually impaired, the problem is even worse. Take Office v. X for example. Sometimes the screen seems so cluttered, you wish you could just go back to MacWrite. That's why I use BBEdit for 99% of my word processing needs.
Office program users may not be aware that you can magnify or shrink the document window. While working, you can zoom in to see details and not worry about disturbing layout features such as small sized text styling, page breaks and margins. The standard toolbar has a Zoom pull-down menu, as does the View menu.
Try this in Office programs:
Thanks to such programs as QuicKeys, and, of course the Macro functions in AppleWorks (ClarisWorks) users can now clean up the visual pollution introduced into the software in the name of 'user friendly.' With these you can set up macros to switch screen modes and views on the fly based on keystrokes. Additionally you can close, open, minimize and expand toolbars and palettes the same way.
If you do all content origination in a text editor rather than the bulky word processing behemoths, and then style in a DTP program such as Quark XPress or Pagemaker, then learn the zoom keyboard actions. For instance, in Quark simply click with the Command/Option keys while in the Content tool. (Keep cap-lock off, or it won't work!) Adobe products, thank goodness, have equalized their key-commands across their whole product line, so any time you hold the spacebar and command key you get the Zoom (+) tool to enlarge. Add the Option key to the mix and you get the Zoom 'out' tool (-) to reduce the view. (Watch for the zoom 'state' symbols which appear in the magnifying glass cursor icon.)
Finder distractions can also cause a loss of concentration and productivity. Keep in mind that in OS X you hit Cmd+H to access the "Hide Finder" command. (Again, OS X programmers borrowed this one from Adobe which utilizes the Cmd+H to hide "racing ants" selections.) Sorry to report however, that unlike Adobe's "hide" command, you cannot toggle the Finder. Hiding it makes it inactive like any other application. To bring it alive again, either choose 'Show All' from the Finder menu, or click the Finder icon in the Dock. Try it. I think you'll find hiding the Finder to be much handier than closing or minimizing all your windows -- plus you don't have to then reopen those windows later.
Although I started this article geared toward the older Mac audience, I believe that too much visual clutter on the screen is always a distraction no matter how old you are. I don't know who started the fad of 'more is better' but if you look at the environments where the productivity is running at near 100%, you'll see most of the screen clutter has been eliminated so the user can concentrate on the primary job at hand. That's why you are computing in the first place, right?
Until next time, happy mousing.
Fred Showker, Editor/Publisher UG Net News
Fred Showker is co-editor of "MUG Info Manager," the User Group Network News service, and a founding Apple User Group Advisory Board (UGAB) member. He was an original founder of the User Group Forum on AppleLink Personal Edition which became America Online in 1988 ... read more
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