Personally, I find that hiding the more distracting windows actually increases my efficiency while I use my computer. In fact, having less on the screen at one time means no more absent minded glances at the taskbar, no getting lost on facebook, and a whole lot more concentration.

OuttaSight is an excellent free solution to the common time management or privacy problems that computer users face today. This lightweight application allows users to hide active windows either by the push of a button, or automatically when they are run. While it is only stated as supporting up through Windows 2000, it works perfectly fine on XP and Vista.

OuttaSight is a Windows desktop utility that hides running application windows to un-clutter the desktop, quickly hide private work, or secure your applications while you’re away from your computer.

Features

• Hide running programs with the push of a button
• Set programs to automatically hide when they start up
• Hide OuttaSight from the taskbar
• Password protect OuttaSight to prevent changes
• Hide/Show all windows with a single hotkey
• Ability to hide windows to the system tray (instead of hiding them completely)

Using OuttaSight

The first thing you’ll notice when you download and run OuttaSight is that it’s very simple looking. This is one of my favorite aspects of the software – it’s very clear, lightweight, and efficient.

First, it is important to personalize the utility. Go to “Hot Keys” and decide what you want your shortcuts for different actions to be. My personal set up used F10 as the hide window hotkey, CTRL+F11 to hide all windows, and CTRL+F12 to show them all.  While you are setting things up, keep in mind the reasons you got OuttaSight in the first place. Do you want it to be very easy and intuitive to show and hide windows, or would you like to be the only person that knows how to do it?

Second, you’re going to want to decide how you want programs to hide. Would you like them to disappear altogether (for secrecy) or minimize to the tray instead? If you are tired of your taskbar being cluttered, but do not mind people seeing that the programs are running, you may want to tell OuttaSight to minimize them to the tray as shown below.

To do this, navigate to the Options tab and check off  “Hide windows to system tray“. If this is not checked, the default behavior is to completely hide windows.

Next, you’ll need to decide if there are some programs you would like to automatically hide whenever they start. These programs could consist of automatic virus scans, annoying startup messages, or other things of that nature. If for some reason you like to start up applications with the intention of not viewing them at all, you can do that too .

To set up a list of programs that will hide when they run, simply navigate to the “Auto-Hide” tab and start adding programs.

Note that you can specify whether you would like the program to hide completely, or run in the tray instead. To view a window that has minimized to the tray, simply double click it.

Finally, analyze things with your privacy in mind. You have the option to password protect OuttaSight. That means that even if someone knows it is running, they can’t use it without entering your password. That also means that your hidden programs remain hidden no matter what. To prevent others from seeing OuttaSight you have the option of hiding it from appearing even in the taskbar. If you do this, make sure you remember the hotkey to pull up OuttaSight – otherwise you’ll have to reboot your computer to access it again.

Hopefully this article was informative. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to post your comments and let me know if you found a better free alternative. Overall I’d like to hear what you have to say about this concept in general – do you use software like this and why?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes (16)
• Your Computer, Your World – How to Keep Out the Mindless (51)
• WinHack – How to Change the Windows Start Button (Win XP) (20)
• Windows System Tools at your Fingertips with FastKake (13)
• Windows Registry Tweaks (Part 2) (8)

I too work with many windows opened at one time: mail, browsers and its tabs, text editor, media player, you get the picture. Most of the time I have to get the information from one window and use it on another. This method of working requires my agility to switch back and forth between windows and tabs, and also my wisdom to find the information among the clutters.

My best friends during the time of trouble with Mac window management are Alt + Tab (to switch windows), Exposé’s F3 (to show all opened windows) and Control + F3 (to show all opened windows within one application). Sometimes, I use Spaces to separate the “working” windows and the “entertainment” windows to unclutter the workspace a little.

Afloat – take two

Then I stumbled upon Jackson’s old article about Afloat and it really helped me with Mac windows management. But almost a year has past since that article was published and Afloat has been updated with a new Snow Leopard-compatible version and several new features.

So I thought it would be nice to have another look at this app from a slightly different perspective.

We’ll start with the installation. Unlike common Mac apps that only need to be dragged and dropped to work, Afloat needs SIMBL before it could be put into action.

After the installation, you need to restart any opened applications to be able to use Afloat. The app will add new menus under Window menu in any Cocoa application. Here are two pictures comparing the Window menu before and after the installation of Afloat.

It’s also been said that Afloat will not work with Carbon apps like Finder and iTunes. But I tried restarting Finder using Command + Alt + Esc and the new menus appear.

Maybe it’s because I use Snow Leopard. After I’ve searched a little bit on the net, I found out that according to Snow Leopard technology page:

All system applications except DVD Player, Front Row, Grapher, and iTunes have been rewritten in 64-bit.

Translation: there are not many Carbon apps left (Cocoa apps are 64-bit) and that Afloat will work for almost all the main applications. I don’t know about third party software yet since I haven’t explore too many applications after installing Afloat.

Now let’s see how this app could help us in solving our Mac window management problems.

The Seven Steps

First problem: working with several windows.

Solution: Instead of flipping through the windows, you could just put the source window always above others.

There are few steps to do to achieve this without disturbing the workspace.

1. First, go to the source window and hit “Command + Control + A” to keep the window always floating above.
   
2. Then hit “Control + Command + 1″ to make the window transparent.
   

   Note: Control the transparency level by using “Command + Control + Page Up/Down” or “Command + Control + Two finger scroll on the multi touch trackpad”. Restore the window to the non-transparent state (opaque) by hitting “Command + Control + 0″.

3. You could also use Overlay command (from Window –> Adjust Effect menu or Command + Control + F) to make the source window transparent, floating above other windows, and unaffected by mouse click or keyboard input. Look at number 2 in the picture.
   

   This “Adjust Effect” window will also give you access to set the window position (number 1), and the transparency level (number 4) as discussed above.

Second problem: the window we need is located in a different Space from the window we use.

Solution: Instead of turning off Spaces or moving the needed window around Spaces, you could keep the window on all Spaces, by checkin the option as shown in the picture above (number 3).

Third problem: it’s difficult to work with a transparent window.
Solution: Instead of turning the transparency effect on and off, you could just make it opaque when active by giving checkmark to the number 5 option in the picture above.

Fourth problem: the size and/or the position of the window is not right.

Solution: you could just resize and/or drag the position of the window, but you could do it easier by performing Quick Resize using Command + Control key while click and drag using the right mouse button anywhere in the window. You could also do a Quick Drag using Command + Control and left mouse button.

Normally, resizing the window require you to click and drag a specific point at the bottom right of the window, and moving the window could be done only by clicking and dragging the title bar of the window.

Fifth problem: you don’t know the location of the file that you are currently working on.
Solution: You could try to do a “Save As” and then click cancel. That might work with some applications. But there is an easier way, using Float’s “Show Window’s file in finder” menu or using the “Command + Control + Up arrow”. This is by far my most favorite feature of Afloat because I often have to rummage through Finder to just email the document that I’ve just finished.

Have you tried Afloat? Do you know other tips on using Afloat? Share using the comments below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Pin Any Application Window To The Top (5)
• Improve Window-Management in OS X with Afloat [Mac] (14)
• How To Organize Your Mac Desktop With Spaces (8)
• How To Hide Running Programs on Windows with OuttaSight (8)
• Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes (16)

This new ‘open-everything spree’ lifestyle adapted by most modern people under any OS – me included – results in a very cluttered Mac desktop. One hit on the Exposé’s “Show All Windows” button reveal just how many of them are cluttering my desktop.

More clutter means less focus, and I realized that, to improve myself,  I need to organize. Fortunately, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard comes with the solution: Spaces – a tool to organize your Mac desktop and optimize those cluttered workspaces.

So, how to organize Mac desktop with Spaces

Open Spaces

To get the maximum result from utilizing Spaces, we need to customize it first to fit our need. Go to System Preferences,

choose Exposé & Spaces

and click on the Spaces tab.

The first thing to do is to make sure that there’s a checkmark in the “Enable Spaces” option. Then you may also give a checkmark to the other box that says “Show Spaces in the Menubar” if you like to have access to Spaces from the menubar.

By default, there are four virtual desktops. But users can add/remove more rows and columns up to sixteen desktops (four rows times four columns) by clicking the plus (+) or minus (-) signs.

Everybody has different preferences on how many virtual desktops they would want. So before deciding your number, the first thing to do is to make a list on what ‘workspaces’ you need.

For example, I need four virtual Mac desktops: the first one is dedicated to work and internet-related activity (work 1), the second one is to music, movie and games (entertainment), the third one is to graphic design (work 2), and the fourth one is for any background activities like downloads or backups.

The next step is to assign applications to their respective virtual desktops. Click on the plus (+) sign under the “Application Assignment” window and choose which one of the opened applications you want to assign. If the application that you want is not on the list (it means the app is not running at that time), choose “Other…”

Then you should assign one of the spaces to the app by clicking on the arrows next to the space number and choose one from the pop-up list. If you want to, you can assign an (important) app – like Mail or Safari or any other app that you need all the time – to be available in every spaces.

The last step is to customize the shortcut keys. Choose one of the available options from the drop down list. There are three kinds of shortcut keys: To activate Spaces (by default assigned to F8), To switch between spaces (by default assigned to Control + any of the Arrow Keys), and To switch directly to a space (by default assigned to Control + Number Keys related to the space numbers).

Using Spaces

After assigning the apps to their spaces, you can do your everyday activities like normal. If you switch between apps with Alt + Tab, you will be taken to the app’s virtual space automatically.

You can use the menubar icon or shortcut keys combination to access Spaces. To use the shortcuts, you can – for example – press Control + Right Arrow to go to the next space, press Control + 4 to go directly to space number 4, or press F8 and you can choose which space to choose.

By categorizing apps into different spaces, I teach myself to focus on a specific task at one time. Hopefully, this will lead to better work results.

How do you organize your Mac desktop? Do you have Spaces related tips to share? Use the comments below to spill your thoughts.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Solve Your Mac Window Management Issues with Afloat (6)
• How To Pin Any Application Window To The Top (5)
• Unveil Hidden Mac OS X Features With Secrets (5)
• The 7 Simple & Great Tricks to Tweak Your Dock on Mac OS X (6)
• Split Windows into Multiple Desktops with WindowsPager (12)

This is a native feature of Linux and can be easily accessed by right-clicking the mouse and choose “Always On Top” from the context menu. However, when it comes to Windows (and even Mac), I am surprised that this small, but useful feature is not available in all iteration of the operating system.

Here comes Deskpins.

Deskpins is a small and lightweight application that can keep your application window on top of all other windows at all time. Simply grab a pin from the Deskpins icons and click on the window, it will then automatically pin itself at the topmost of the desktop.

Installation

The installation is easy. Download the software (only 96KB in size) and run the .exe file to install it in your system. It shouldn’t take more than a minute, even if you are using it on an old system (like Windows 95). It is stated in its website that it is compatible up to Win XP, but I tried it on Windows 7 and it works flawlessly.

Usage

After you have launched the application, it should show up as an icon in the system tray.

Click on the Deskpins icon. Your mouse cursor will instantly change to a pin icon. Click on any window to pin it to the topmost level of the desktop. You will now see a pin on that particular window.

Configuration Options

Even though it is a simple and small application, it also comes with several configuration options for you to customize its behavior and look and feel.

First of all, if you are not a red lover, then you can change the pin color to your favorite color in the first tab menu. You can also change the tracking rate and to use a single or double click to activate the pin in the system tray.

Now, if you have a particular application that you want to keep it “always on top” at all time, instead of activating the deskpins everytime, you can create an Autopin rule such that the application is automatically pin to the desktop each time it is launched. This is definitely one nifty feature that will come in handy at all times.

For those who prefer keyboard shortcuts more than clicking the mouse, there is also an option for you to configure the hotkey to activate the Deskpins.

Conclusion

For a simple feature that should exist by default, but doesn’t, this simple application has definitely done its job well. It is small in size and only take up little system resources, best of all, it supports all version of Windows, thus making it an useful and versatile application.

This is definitely not the only app that can make an application “always on top”. If you have tried any other apps that perform the same function, share it with us in the comments.

On the opposite end of this productivity stick, Varun wrote about the top 5 desktop apps for multitasking. You should definitely check it out, if you haven’t already.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Solve Your Mac Window Management Issues with Afloat (6)
• Improve Window-Management in OS X with Afloat [Mac] (14)
• How To Organize Your Mac Desktop With Spaces (8)
• How To Hide Running Programs on Windows with OuttaSight (8)
• Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes (16)

Everyone knows that large screen-estate enhances productivity, it’s not a myth. With that said, browsing and working on my 13″ MacBook isn’t a bed of roses.

It’s hardest when I have to work with multiple documents because it gets extremely difficult to view everything at a glance, especially if I have to cram them onto my tiny screen.

I’m only an indigent student so getting a larger external display isn’t an option, unless you’re offering to donate one. Up until a few days ago, Spaces was kind of the only method I knew of to pseudo-increase my screen-estate. Then I bumped into Afloat and was surprisingly pleased.

Afloat doesn’t do anything to increase the number of desktops I have or affect the amount of screen space either. No, it does something slightly different although amazingly intelligent – it changes the way we manage our application windows. By allowing a combination of transparency, pinning windows on top or on the desktop and making them act as an overlay; it has helped me to overcome some of the major issues I had to deal with.

Before I go any further, I have to elaborate that Afloat will only work with Cocoa applications in Leopard. Unfortunately, Carbon applications like iTunes and Finder aren’t getting any love. However, this may all change when Snow Leopard is released since it is purported to be fully-Cocoa.

If you’re going “Huh?” at the terms ‘Cocoa’ and ‘Carbon’, don’t fret. I was once in your position, regular users like us probably don’t realize that there are several different frameworks crunching their gears behind the scenes of OS X. To learn more, check out this article from Macworld on Carbon versus Cocoa.

Now back to the subject.  Afloat adds the ability to make application windows transparent so that you can see through it into the window below. It may not sound like much but on a small screen, it does wonders. Imagine yourself trying to type out some text from a photo (a snapshot from a Powerpoint slide, for example) and you have to constantly switch from image viewer to the text editor. By setting the image editor as an overlay (Overlay is a feature whereby the application window is set to appear transparent, is always on top and isn’t affected by clicks), you can now place the image viewer directly over the text editor and type away.

Like I mentioned earlier, Afloat can keep certain application windows above all others. This can be useful when you’re trying to keep track of something, making the application viewable at all times even when you switch between several other programs. There is no way to do this natively in OS X.

Afloat can also pin your application window to the desktop so that it appears beneath the desktop icons and all other opened windows. This is useful when you want to… be able to pin a window to the desktop? Using Exposé to Show Desktop will actually reveal any window which is pinned there. The only problem occurs when clicking on desktop icons: the clicks actually fall through to the application window below, if there is one. So slight arrangements are necessary to make this work properly.

Overall, Afloat has made life easier for me in cases when I had multiple applications opened and needed to refer to several of them at once. But then again, I wouldn’t be having this problem if I could afford a larger screen. If only.

Like always, Afloat is free and was developed by a µISV called infinitelabs. So if you like the program, donations are greatly appreciated.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Solve Your Mac Window Management Issues with Afloat (6)
• How To Pin Any Application Window To The Top (5)
• How To Hide Running Programs on Windows with OuttaSight (8)
• Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes (16)
• Your Computer, Your World – How to Keep Out the Mindless (51)