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Developer
BananaSoft
FocusLayer is a small program that focusses attention on the frontmost window by placing a partially transparent layer between it and all other windows. This can make it easier to tell what you're doing when there are a lot of windows open.
What's New
Version 1.2 adds the following:
- You can now focus by either window or application. Application mode is more friendly to other applications (no processing power used when not actually switching focus) but window mode works better in a lot of situations.
- Support for multiple monitors
- Fixed crash when clicking on dock icon
- Transparency is now seperate from colour in the preferences
- You can exclude specific applications from FocusLayer's effect
Version 1.2 adds the following:
- You can now focus by either window or application. Application mode is more friendly to other applications (no processing power used when not actually switching focus) but window mode works better in a lot of situations.
- Support for multiple monitors
- Fixed crash when clicking on dock icon
- Transparency is now seperate from colour in the more...
Requirements
PPC, Mac OS X 10.2 or later.
PPC, Mac OS X 10.2 or later.
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FocusLayer X User Discussion (Write a Review)
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FocusLayer is a small program that focusses attention on the frontmost window by placing a partially transparent layer between it and all other windows. This can make it easier to tell what you're doing when there are a lot of windows open.
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v-g reviewed on 15 Sep 2006
So, this app helps very well to distinguish the active window from the background, so no more guesswork is needed (sometimes an app is active, but its main window is not). I don't use a desktop pic, so I have no problem with desktop getting dimmed. Actually, I even like it since my 21" CRT does not glow at me that hard, but I see the information I work in full brightness.
The manual mentions that changing a refresh rate does not change the CPU load very much. This is not true with my G4. At the default refresh rate of 0 (whatever that means), I had constant 40% CPU load by FocusLayer alone, and it did slow the system down at certain critical moments. I changed the setting to 0.4 sec, and the CPU load went down to less than 1%, while behaviour remained almost the same.
The icon in the Dock remains even if the setting is off, and this really needs to be fixed.
+272
Anonymous reviewed on 12 Sep 2005
First, an annoyance: The screen also blocks out the wallpaper. Not something I like.
Second annoyance: It asks if you want the icon in the dock, and when you selct not to have it, it gives it to you anyway.
Third annoyance: When you click Expose, the "screen" comes up as an application. Why?
Finally, the "screen" only seems to come up when you run the program. I had it set to refresh every second, but it just didn't hide anything after the first pass.
Again, brilliant idea, but either it's not executed properly, it doesn't work on 10.4.2, or I need to go back to school. Since I read the instructions, I rule out the last possiblity.
Shame, really. Looked pretty good the few times it DID work.