Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Developer's Release

The most outstanding feature within Leopard at this stage is Finder, which looks exactly as it does in Tiger. Still, there are some changes that long-time Mac users will appreciate. First, you can (finally) change the grid spacing in Leopard, restoring a long-lost piece of functionality last seen in Mac OS 9. Second, if you select a filename and hit Enter to rename it, the Finder highlights only the filename, not its three-letter extension; this makes labelling files easier.

Also giving old-time Mac users a reason to be happy is the addition of spring-loaded folders to the Dock. If you have a folder with subfolders in the Dock, you can drag an item to the folder's icon in the Dock and hold it there, and the folder will open. You can then continue navigating down the folder's hierarchy until you see where you want to drop the item.

The Finder Help menu gets a strange cosmetic makeover but also adds a little bit of functionality; instead of just referring you to the Mac OS X Help Viewer, the Help function can step you through some basic tasks (although this was hit and miss in our preview version). Also, Spotlight gets a definition function, which could save you a trip to Dashboard's dictionary widget.

Preview, Apple's general file- and PDF-viewing application, has received a Mail-like face-lift -- no more brushed metal here. And the new Inspector palette makes it easier to manage searching, encryption, links and annotations. The non-standard buttons that don't look like buttons should go, though.

In addition to the features previously revealed, such as the integration of a Safari clipping widget for Dashboard, Safari gets very useful enhancements to its Find functionality. When you first hit Command+F, a new Find bar appears, with the current Spotlight search term in it. What's even nicer is that the entire Web page dims, with only the word you're looking for highlighted. This will be a huge benefit to people with vision limitations. You can cycle through instances of your search term by clicking arrows in the Find bar or by hitting Return. Safari also allows you to drag icons across the toolbar, a welcome addition. And the History feature now opens a Bookmark-like tab that allows you to browse past-visited sites much more efficiently.

Of all the end-user changes in Leopard, the one most likely to attract Linux users is Spaces. This multiple desktop feature was previewed publicly, but it wasn't explained well. We found that you can have up to 16 virtual desktops at once and bind applications to desktops. Switching between desktops and dragging windows or applications from one to another is very intuitive -- a good example of how Apple takes an idea and makes it better.

The final release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is scheduled for spring 2007.