A minor concern today checking the Log. It opened to messages from 2014, so I clicked the Date column with its triangle icon which indicated it was sort-reversible. It is not for me, nor are any of those columns clickable to sort. Is that a bug?
This is working as designed. In a future version, I hope to make it possible to reverse the date sorting. The other columns will not be sortable for memory/storage/performance reasons.
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Glad to hear log sort by date will be reversible at some point because the default sort with oldest on top is the opposite of what I would prefer. Currently, with the oldest records on top (ascending sort order) by default, we have to manually scroll a long way to the bottom to see the most recent events. I always want to see the most recent events and have so far never been interested in the oldest log records.
You can just press the End key to scroll all the way to the bottom. If you have a log entry selected, SpamSieve will maintain that as the log changes so that you don’t lose your place. But if you want to always see the most recent log entries, don’t select anything, and then whenever something happens it will auto-scroll to the bottom to show what’s new.
My experience with the Log is:
(1) Even if I make sure no log entry is selected (CMD-clicking a previously selected entry if necessary), once the log is closed then reopened, it’s always positioned at the top again (oldest entry).
(2) A selected entry can easily be out of view if the user scrolls away from it. Then out-of-sight out-of-mind becomes a factor. As a practical matter, the only way be totally sure no entry is selected is to preemptively select any entry, then CMD-click to unselect it.
(3) We often have to wait—sometimes for quite a while—for new log entries to appear and trigger an autoscroll to the end.
(4) Last but not least, my Mac keyboard layout doesn’t have an End key and I’m having trouble finding an equivalent key combination that works in the log file. CMD+Down Arrow goes to the end of the document in most macOS apps, but doesn’t work (for me) in the SpamSieve log. Also tried other suggestions such as Fn+Down Arrow and Fn+Right Arrow but those don’t work for me either. ʅ(°_°)ʃ
- macOS 14.1
- SpamSieve 3.0.1
- Keyboard: Keychron K15 Pro
That’s correct. I should probably change it to start at the bottom if nothing’s selected.
You can be sure whether something is selected because the bottom pane will show details about the selection (vs. saying No Log Entries Selected). But perhaps it would be useful to have a Now button like in the Console app?
fn+Right Arrow is the standard way to type End on a laptop keyboard, and it’s working for me here. What does it do on your Mac? Does it work in Mail or other apps? Maybe the Keychron works differently.
The Mac standard Command+Down Arrow behavior is to go to the bottom of a block of text, but for lists it selects the next time.
In SpamSieve 3.0.2b4, you can now choose to sort the log with the most recent entries at the top. It will also auto-scroll to show the most recent entries if you open the window and nothing is selected.
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Wow, that’s impressively quick turnaround, thanks! It sounds like this update will significantly improve user’s experience with log sorting.
I meant to reply to your previous points earlier, but life has been busy recently.
(1) Addressed in 3.0.2b4!
(2) You’re correct. It’s already obvious to see when nothing is selected. No need for a Now button. I was rushing too much when making that point LOL.
(4) My shortcut keys are behaving very strangely. In the SS log fn+Right Arrow just beeps and does nothing, works correctly in Mail, but in Notes I have to use Cmd+Down arrow to go to the bottom! I’ll investigate further. Probably some custom shortcut conflicts…
Well, the other feature of the Now button is that it will continue to scroll to show new entries even when you have something selected. Personally, I find this disorienting and not very useful. But I guess there must be some reason Apple offers it—maybe since having to deselect can be awkward and non-obvious?
Yes, it’s possible Apple offers both options because neither is ideal. The Now button functionality sounds disruptive to troubleshooting one area of the log while initial discoverability and behavior after deselection was not the best either. Should be better now though.