Bolstered OS X Inline Previews
To augment the preview features (Quick Look, Cover Flow, basic icon previews) present in Leopard, Apple adds an enhanced inline preview to the Finder’s icon view in Snow Leopard. When you view a folder that uses icons of 64 by 64 pixels or larger, mousing over your files will display preview/playback controls. If you mouse over an audio or video file, you’ll have access to a play button. If you mouse over a Word doc, a PowerPoint presentation, or a PDF (among other common file formats), you’ll get forward and back arrows for paging through a document.
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Windows 7′s Preview Pane
Windows 7 has an optional preview pane for use in any Explorer window. Select a file, and the preview will appear in the preview pane. Compared to Snow Leopard’s preview feature, Windows 7’s seems pretty basic (text loses all formatting, for example), but it’s better than nothing. Also, as was the case with Vista, folder icons in Windows 7 give you a peek at the folder’s contents.
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Improved Window Management
Exposé, a part of Mac OS X since 2003, learns some new tricks in Snow Leopard. Most notably, you can now click and hold the Dock icon for any open app in order to view all open windows for that app. This feature now extends to minimized windows–whereas in previous versions of OS X, Exposé ignored any windows that you sent to the Dock. In Snow Leopard, a thumbnail in Exposé represents each of these windows.
Also, Snow Leopard now arranges windows in a grid when you view them in Exposé. Previously, windows seemed to scale down in a haphazard fashion. I actually prefer the old method of handling Exposé: With the new Exposé arrangement, I find that all of the windows end up about the same size, which makes finding what I’m looking for more difficult, but this issue is very much a matter of personal preference.
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Aero Peek
Windows 7 brings a new window management tool to the table, too. Called Aero Peek, this feature helps you see the window you want to jump to next. To use Aero Peek, click the taskbar icon for the app associated with the window you’re looking for, and then mouse over the thumbnails. All other windows will go transparent, leaving only the window you mouse over visible.
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Clearing the Desktop
The most useful aspect of Aero Peek is its desktop peek feature. If you want to take a quick look at the desktop without hiding all of your windows, simply move your mouse pointer to the lower-right corner of the taskbar; at once, all windows will turn transparent. Click the lower-right corner of the taskbar to hide all open windows and see the desktop; click again to get back to work. This option is roughly equivalent to the Show Desktop feature in OS X’s Exposé, which moves all windows off your screen with a keystroke (or with a flick of the mouse, if you have set a hot-corner for Exposé).
Both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are solid updates to their respective operating systems, but I can’t say that either one will persuade many users of the competing OS to cross to the other side. If you’re perfectly happy with Windows, Snow Leopard probably won’t make you lust for a Mac. Likewise, if you’re a Mac user and weren’t considering switching to Windows before, Windows 7 is unlikely to change your mind.
Resource: www.p30world.com
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