Yosemite - Applications won't open without first selecting a directory

[raredesign]

I am forced to select New Document, Done, or Open Document after opening an application such as Pages, Numbers, TextEdit, etc?

Is there a way to configure it to the old method?

I wish they hadn't changed it.

 

[MacInWin]

What would be the purpose of opening Pages, Numbers or any other application if you don't want to work with it? Do you just want to take up memory and CPU?

 

[raredesign]

What would be the purpose of opening Pages, Numbers or any other application if you don't want to work with it? Do you just want to take up memory and CPU?

Is this the standard level of trolling I will receive on these forums? If so, then admins, please delete my account now, as it is a waste of time. Did you have nothing better to do tonight than to litter my post with rhetoric?

Yes, I prefer the functional design of the previous many version of Apple's operating systems. I do not always intend to save a document. Actually, I would dare say that I often times need to quickly open an app for a calculation, text cleanup, quick formatting, or object (i.e. shape).

I became a fan of OSX because of its streamlined fit and finish that allowed me to be more productive. This move is no different than Microsoft's Win8 flop with the added steps in the tile menu without a start icon. The MS fanboys balked at me then, until I wasn't the only voice and 8.1 was released. Now you, as an apparent Apple-cult member, are doing the same thing.

Please go get a hobby and allow someone with a better answer to respond.

 

[chscag]

@raredesign

Let's tone it down OK? I think if you had explained your question with more clarity you would have received a different answer. Member MacinWin was merely trying to respond to a question that quite frankly made no sense the way it was asked.

Thanks.

 

[raredesign]

@raredesign

Let's tone it down OK? I think if you had explained your question with more clarity you would have received a different answer. Member MacinWin was merely trying to respond to a question that quite frankly made no sense the way it was asked.

Thanks.

Out of the 30+ forums I am on, I just get a little tired of seeing them littered with banter rather than a Question / Answer format.

Although I guess I was kind of hypocritical. Now that I ranted, I'll just "Keep Calm and Carry On".

 

[MacInWin]

raredesign, let's try to get back to a better start. What I was trying to say was that starting an application like Pages with no document accomplishes almost nothing. The app comes into memory and uses CPU cycles with no productivity. In older, slower machines, if they had enough memory, it may have made sense to do that if quick response is critical and the load times are slow, but with modern equipment and operating system features, it's kind of pointless to have all those applications idling. But if that's what you want, you can have an idling Pages by letting it open a New document, then picking a blank page format and immediately closing that document without save. That will leave you with a running Pages with no document. But if you want to do anything, you'll need to open a document. The same process will work with Numbers, but again, if you want to DO anything, you'll need to open a document in which to do it, whether you save it or not.

If the objective is to have Pages/Numbers/Textedit/Whatever in the dock, handy to open, you can just put it there without it being open, consuming memory or CPU. Then you can just click on the dock to open the application (and a document in which to work), do what you want and then minimize back to the dock or shut down the application, in which the dock still holds the icon for you to restart it whenever you need it. I can't read the mind of Apple engineers, and they've certainly done some really stupid things on occasion, IMHO, but I think what they were trying to accomplish here was to expedite the process for the 99% of us who only open an application when we want to work in it and so we need a document in which to work.

It's probably possible to write a script to do the opening/selecting/closing steps using Automator if the choosing is cumbersome to you. I don't know how to do that, however.

EDIT: I just looked at the Preferences for Pages and you can set it to skip the "Template Chooser" if you set a default template for New documents. IF you do that, then you only have one click to get to a new document and two clicks to close it. And again, it probably could be automated if you want.

 

[raredesign]

raredesign, let's try to get back to a better start. What I was trying to say was that starting an application like Pages with no document accomplishes almost nothing. The app comes into memory and uses CPU cycles with no productivity. In older, slower machines, if they had enough memory, it may have made sense to do that if quick response is critical and the load times are slow, but with modern equipment and operating system features, it's kind of pointless to have all those applications idling. But if that's what you want, you can have an idling Pages by letting it open a New document, then picking a blank page format and immediately closing that document without save. That will leave you with a running Pages with no document. But if you want to do anything, you'll need to open a document. The same process will work with Numbers, but again, if you want to DO anything, you'll need to open a document in which to do it, whether you save it or not.

If the objective is to have Pages/Numbers/Textedit/Whatever in the dock, handy to open, you can just put it there without it being open, consuming memory or CPU. Then you can just click on the dock to open the application (and a document in which to work), do what you want and then minimize back to the dock or shut down the application, in which the dock still holds the icon for you to restart it whenever you need it. I can't read the mind of Apple engineers, and they've certainly done some really stupid things on occasion, IMHO, but I think what they were trying to accomplish here was to expedite the process for the 99% of us who only open an application when we want to work in it and so we need a document in which to work.

It's probably possible to write a script to do the opening/selecting/closing steps using Automator if the choosing is cumbersome to you. I don't know how to do that, however.

EDIT: I just looked at the Preferences for Pages and you can set it to skip the "Template Chooser" if you set a default template for New documents. IF you do that, then you only have one click to get to a new document and two clicks to close it. And again, it probably could be automated if you want.

Thanks for revisiting. I apologize if I mistook your the intent of your initial post.

I can understand stability and recovery benefits for saving a document before it is created should the system crash and/or reboot, but it is completely unexpected and not a standardized workflow action.

It may not bother an individual who only has the intent of creating a document start to finish, but for someone such as myself (developers and designers), try to look at it from the perspective of being asked to bookmark each webpage you visit before it will show. You will be able to click proceed without bookmarking and simply open the web page, but that popup will get annoying. We continuously run multiple tabs in a browser session, of which the majority are not bookmarked. Should the system crash, they may not be saved unless the browser inherently supports the recovery/cache/auto-save.

I do not see any performance benefit from doing this, as any application is opened into memory, and regardless of saving pre or post, will happen either way. A cache file can be created via auto-save capability to safeguard against lost or corrupt files. The system handles virtual memory disk queuing, and is not circumvented by a different workflow.

Thank you for checking into a way to turn the option off, but it isn't the template selection I am bothered by, but I wish the initial dialog box was optional.

Please understand I am not Apple-bashing here, as I am completely impartial to any OS or App I use. If it does the job, I use it, and that spans Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, Linux, Unix, a handful of pebbles, and whatever else I need in the moment.

There is a fine line of balance needed between UI design that is tailored to consumer expectation and best practice conformity. Changes should most often be optional, and UAT observed to understand workflow need better.

I imagine that this will be a short-lived "feature" soon to become optional in an update.

I'll try to wait patiently.

 

[MacInWin]

I doubt it's going to change, as the functionality of it makes sense for the 90% user base. I'm still not sure I understand what you want to do, but I did want to say that you don't have to SAVE the first document, just close it. That will leave you with Pages in memory, no document being edited, which is the exact state you would be in if the dialog box never appeared. Of course, as I said, to edit a document, do a calculation, etc, you would still have to open a document, but you don't have to save it when you've finished doing whatever you wanted to do, just close and don't save.