For those times when you need complete, uninterrupted concentration on a particular app you're working in, there is Doodim: a simple menubar utility that creates an Exposé-like dimming effect on the desktop and all background app windows. Doodim's product site offers a simple animated screenshot demo to help you see what really goes on, and users can even take the dimming effect all the way to black, so no nothing else is visible, save for the app you're working in. It's a slick idea and is done well, and toggling the dimming effect is simply handled from the menubar (the menubar, if you're wondering, is not dimmed). The site lists one known catch so far, which I personally haven't run into while playing with this: apparently, the dim effect can fail sometimes while switching between apps. Bouncing from Firefox to Mail, Adium, NetNewsWire, Safari and iTunes hasn't produced any issues for me yet though.
Doodim is provided free from La Chose Interactive, and I'm not sure if it's 10.4-only or not.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-31-2006 @ 11:09AM
Jeff said...
I have never liked having all my apps visible on top of each other. And since the beginnings of OS X I've used Auto Hide with no problem. It hides all our open applications except the one you're working on (the desktop remains visible). And it's free too.
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7-31-2006 @ 11:11AM
Jeff said...
Opps, the URL was stripped out of my comment for Auto Hide. It's http://cryptonictech.com/products.html
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7-31-2006 @ 11:21AM
Sam said...
I could see this being useful especially for photoshop, which is horrible to try to use when you have a lot of stuff open in the background.
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7-31-2006 @ 11:30AM
Brian said...
We posted about Doodim on FreeMacWare.com last night, then someone put that on Digg and brought down the developer site real quick. I suppose this TUAW press added on.
We've updated our post with a temporary download.
http://www.freemacware.com/doodim/
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7-31-2006 @ 11:42AM
takio said...
Well, 2 glitches so far:
On a dual monitor setup, dimming only works in main screen; and when using dashboard, a misterious black empty "window" appears which, when selected, brings up doodim - this is probably the way it works, just placing a transparent black window behind frontmost app (which in turn explains dual-monitor problem). The "layer-switching" of this "window" also generates a brief blinking when switching apps (maybe only on low RAM situations like mine).
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7-31-2006 @ 11:44AM
takio said...
sorry, strike dashboard, meant exposé :S
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7-31-2006 @ 12:02PM
tripdragon said...
it's an older app.. has not seen much of any updates .. it should be remade to smooth in the darkness
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7-31-2006 @ 12:04PM
Alexi said...
Excellent!
This is much like Zazen, which I happened to stumble upon the other day, but free!
Zazen link: http://www.popcopy.net/Zazen/Zazen.html
TUAW saves you money. :)
-Alexi
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7-31-2006 @ 12:13PM
andy said...
i love the fact i can see my open apps / windows, in my mind its half the point of osx with its drag and drop properties and multi app usability. very handy, if im not using an app much ill minimize it or close the window.
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7-31-2006 @ 12:42PM
Dominique PERETTI said...
For the story, Doodim is indeed an old application that was written as an experiment.
It was "Dugg" recently, bringing a lot of attention to it.
Now, it looks like we will have to make it Universal and release the source code !
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7-31-2006 @ 1:16PM
Esmirald said...
I really like this app, the only downside is that the diming is not in realtime, but rather slow.
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7-31-2006 @ 1:52PM
BrianP said...
I have been using a similar app, FocusLayer, on my G4 mini. It works really well with 10.3, but has big problems on macs running 10.4. Good to see there is another option out there. This is a usability feature that I wish would be baked into Leopard. I've grown so used to this that when it's not running, the "app clutter" just drives me to distraction.
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7-31-2006 @ 2:05PM
MrVx said...
I like it. It may be old and not polished, it really helps me concentrate (for the 5 minutes I've been using it... photoshopping).
Could a keyboard shortcut be easily added? I'm not too good at AppleScripting... unless I can copy/paste! :-)
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7-31-2006 @ 3:02PM
Exilio said...
This would be great if it could be more customizable and updated. Nice app!
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7-31-2006 @ 3:08PM
jeremy said...
Is it just me, or does the dimming only function on a single screen? My second monitor app windows do not seem to get the effect.
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8-02-2006 @ 3:45AM
ghostshadow said...
Here is a video of Doodim in action! Pass it around
http://www.ghostknox.com/im2/hackimg/files/vid/doodim/doodim.html
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8-02-2006 @ 11:17AM
BrianP said...
Well I tried this out and have to say I prefer FocusLayer, for the sole reason that with FocusLayer you can switch between apps using a normal click, not an option-click. Using FocusLayer is practically transparent (no pun intended), whereas with Doodim your interaction with the UI has to change. Boo.
If only FocusLayer worked with 10.4. Hopefully if the source of Doodim is released there can be some more development to refine the experience.
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