Something folks seem to be missing here ... The move to the top, horizontal satus area included the capability to *customise* it. I have quite a few buttons up there and greatly appreciate the ability to do so. 

The old left-sided status area also included much wasted space, IMHO, so this seems to be an argument against change per se rather than a discussion about the real merits of the top-mounted toolbar.

Tim Mansour <[log in to unmask]>
Neologica Print & Promotions ABN 63 904 335 408
Certified FileMaker 10 Developer
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On 12/12/2010, at 14:48, "Richard S. Russell" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On 2010 Dec 11, at 21:31, David Thorp wrote:
> 
>> So yeah... I'm not trying to be a smartarse, but I really want to understand why this is such an issue, given the points I've made above.  Enlighten me?
> 
> 
> Well, as I wrote earlier, it's not a BIG issue, it's an annoyance. And, as I also wrote earlier, it's more than offset by the auto-numbering feature for tabs. (Other people may have their own favorite compensations, like script triggering.)
> 
> But the reason that it IS an issue is that it could be better — has BEEN better, in fact — and isn't that generally what we mean by "issue"?
> 
> I don't object to the horizontality so much as I do the utter waste of space involved. I could design a better interface in under 2 hours, and I bet most of you could, too. For a sterling example of GOOD space usage, look at the menu bar which has been standard across the top of every GUI OS screen since the very 1st Macintosh back in 1984 — a veritable paradigm of successful design, elegantly combining power, intuitive understandability, and compactness. That's the standard FMI should aspire to ... and which I normally expect them to deliver.