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Vox Pop: What default settings would you change?
Merlin Mann | Aug 21 2007
As I am wont to do, I was thinking out loud on Twitter this morning.
I'm convinced that, for better or worse, a lot of computer-related habits come straight out of using the default settings. For example a stock Mail.app install checks your email every 5 minutes (I reset mine to 'Manual') and, without interdiction, Apple's mail program will also create all your new messages as "Rich Text" (Nuh uh. Mine? 'Plain Text'). And then, in some cases, even if you want to do things differently, you have to swim upstream to do so. In the case above, I can't set iCal or gCal's default to anything but 1 hour (any more than I can autoset multiple alarms1). God only knows what poor John Gruber would give to have Mail.app more easily let people quit top-posting. The Question to You:What default settings would you love to change in popular applications? Taken a step further, what excellent habits could be taught to users by looking at defaults as something beyond familiarity and day one ease-of-use? Could the aggressive use of smart or personalized defaults create a generation of short-meeting-makers and intersperse-responders? 68 Comments
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 Mail format -> plain text Emoticons...Submitted by Todd (not verified) on August 22, 2007 - 4:42am.
Mail format -> plain text Emoticons -> off Windows Explorer view -> details Windows Explorer -> do not hide file extensions Email receipts -> never request, never send Cookies -> ask Third party cookies -> don't even bother to ask Browser history -> this session only Text editors -> tab = 4 spaces, scan and replace on load system font -> webdings (er...wait...) Oh, and email clients should check the to: and cc: fields of outgoing mail. If more than one domain name is found, all addresses should be moved to bcc:. » POSTED IN:
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