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Ever get annoyed by having a cluttered desktop full of windows? There’s a slew of applications out there for this very task. I’ve hand picked just two that I think are the best combination for distraction free use of my Mac.

The idea of the distraction free Mac is to single out the current window I am currently working with, hide the rest of my open Applications, hide the dock and menu bar, and make my desktop a single color.

Here is the result as I type this blog entry in Firefox:

Here is the result in Photoshop:

A distraction free setup in Photoshop is particularly useful with a grey background, since the neutral solid color allows for better viewing of gradients and color tones in photographs.

So, how did I obtain this distraction free environment? Well, first I
Select Turn Hiding On in the Dock preferences, located in the Apple menu bar, under Dock or I can just use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+Option+D to toggle the Dock on and off. Beyond this, I will need to install two applications to get the job done.

MenuShade

MenuShade is a free application that allows me to hide the menu bar at the top of the screen. I can mouse over the menu bar whenever I need to use it, otherwise it becomes a solid color.

Download MenuShade from the Nullriver Software site.

Drag MenuShade to my Applications folder and Open to watch your menu bar disappear! Clicking the MenuShade icon in the Dock will allow me to change it’s preferences. Ctrl+Click the MenuShade icon in the Dock and Select Open at Login, if I want MenuShade to open everytime I startup my Mac.

Think

Download Think from the Freeverse site.

Drag Think to my Applications folder and Open it for the first time. I am greeted by a list of icons of all my open applications, similar to the Cmd+Tab graphic.
I click the icon of the program I want to use.

Think is an amazing distraction free environment. Think creates a single color backdrop behind the application I am currently working in. Furthermore, Think provides a controller where I can set the opacity and color of the backdrop, and switch the front most application.

What did you learn in this post?
Or did it leave you with further questions?


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Written by Steve Blue
steveblue@iuseapple.com