Reader Harlan Lachman witness his Mac too cluttered for his liking . He write :
Is there any program auto hider ( something that always mechanically put forward “ blot out Others ” ) that works with Mac OSX Lion ?
I will indicate the waffling nature of the following solution with the addition of several consonants and an ellipsis . Yyyyyes … .
Mission Control
I waffle for a couple of reasons . The first is that Lion has a built - in method for doing this , but you ’re going to have to rethink the way you use your Mac . The other is that full - screenland applications can make thing more complicated . Let ’s take these in order .
The build - in method acting is Mission Control . If you want to hide one software while working in another , invoke Mission Control , move your cursor to the top - rightfield of the silver screen , cluck on the positive ( + ) button to produce a newfangled desktop surroundings , switch to that environment , and open up the software you desire to work with . ingeminate for other environments and software . When you ’re ready to move to another practical app , just switch environments .
Another pick is to apply the Dock and when flip coating , reserve down the Option key while clicking on the lotion you want to set up or change over to . When you do this , the old app program is hidden . However , it does n’t hide all other app if some are undefended . To do this , insistence Command - Option - H.
Now , about those full - projection screen applications . When you make an app operate in full blind , the Hide commands no longer process . Lion demand that the software is everything and it does this by place that full - silver screen software in an environment all its own . If you want to trade software , you must use the Command - Tab shortcut to land up the applications programme whipper , employ Mission Control , utilize the Dock , or pull the software out of full - screen mode and switch as you ordinarily would . Of course you could merely avoid throw applications into full - screen modal value . Photo Booth launch in that view by default , but other applications launch in the normal view .
I ’m quite keen on auto - hiding coating I ’m not actively work with , but I discover Mission Control cumbersome . You have a few options here . My colleague Dan Frakes recommended Ben Willmore ’s Isolator ( ) to me and it ’s very slick . With it you’re able to automatically hide inactive applications as well as all cover the background . Ben requests a contribution for his work .
I ’m also a fan of James Thomson ’s $ 29 DragThing ( ) — a pallet - establish applications programme catapult . Among its many features is the ability to auto - hide all but the alive applications programme .
Updated 10/11/11 to correct erroneous belief regarding Dock behaviour with full - screen applications .
