Well, they’ve done it again. Another iTunes update, another revamp of the keyboard shortcuts. For those of you who are keeping count, that’s 3 times in the last year alone… As a dedicated keyboard user, it’s getting hard to keep up.

The keyboard shortcut in question is the “Switch to Mini-Player” or what used to be the Minimize command. Earlier in 2009, the iTunes team changed the functionality of the “Minimize” command (the little green ball in the upper left corner -or- Window Menu->Minimize) in order to maintain continuity with the rest of OS X but in the process broke a well-known command that a majority of users took for granted. Before this change, the Minimize command [command-control-z (note: a 1-handed keyboard combo)] would switch iTunes from the full size player into its mini-sized self, and back again.

After the change, the Minimize command worked as it does in other OS X applications, expanding and minimizing the window in a somewhat unpredictable way. In the process, they changed the “Switch to Mini-Player” functionality to the keyboard shortcut [command-shift-M] which is nearly impossible to achieve with just your left hand (My typical setup is left hand on the keyboard, right-hand on the mouse).

Subsequently, the iTunes world erupted – and a flood of feedback persuaded Apple to revert back to the original functionality. (Phew, crisis averted)

On Wednesday, Feb 3, 2010 iTunes 9.0.3 was released with the Minimize functionality again switched to match continuity with OS X – breaking the well-known keyboard shortcut once again. To make matters worse, the “little green ball” in the upper-left corner doesn’t match the Minimize command, instead it kept its original functionality of switching iTunes into the mini-player – it’s all become very confusing.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m plenty capable of adapting and getting used to whatever the iTunes team decides is the best the configuration of keys, based on current and future planned features – but I’m growing tired of re-learning them every few weeks.

So here’s hoping that one day soon Apple will get their act together and stick with a shortcut scheme.

-WD

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 3:46 PM and is filed under Mac OS X. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.