- Overprotective Safari
- Forgetful Safari
- Dumb DVD Player
- TextEdit Windows Incorrectly Positioned
- iChat Forgets User Changes to Windows
- iTunes Autofill Solely for iPod shuffle
- iPhoto Doesn't Fail Gracefully
- iPhoto Doesn't Display File Names Nicely
- Disk Utility Doesn't Erase Free Disk Space
- iTunes Doesn't Make Recommendations
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5. iChat Forgets User Changes to Windows
Another example of Apple ignoring its own advice can be seen in iChat. As with TextEdit, iChat violates the default window-positioning guidelines by opening new chat windows well below the menu bar. Even more annoying, if you reposition and resize the window to your liking, these changes are ignored the next time you open a new chat window. Again, this is in direct conflict with Apple’s guidelines on the subject: "If a user changes a window’s initial size or location, maintain the user’s choices the next time the associated file or window (in the case of a single-window application) opens."
This misbehavior is particularly odd because iChat is smart enough to remember changes to the size and location of the Buddy List, but not the chat windows. Fortunately, there’s a simple fix for this in the form of Chax. This program adds a ton of useful preferences to iChat (see Figure 5), including "Save message window positions for each person." If you like Chax, make a donation to the programmer via PayPal.
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Figure 5 Chax makes iChat remember where you want windows.