[alex_kac]

I'm curious if anybody has seen or wants to write an app that sits in the background and automatically hides applications that are not in the foreground after x minutes of inactivity?

For example - I'd like my email hidden after 5 minutes, iTunes never hidden, Dreamweaver hidden after 30 minutes, and so on. Its just my preferred method of working by keeping my apps all open, but not visible until I need them.

[mdc]

i have no programming ability, but i was thinking of something like this. but instead of hiding them how about their transparency drops a lot. so you can still see them but they are not that noticeable.

[CharlesS]

Hiding applications can easily be done with AppleScript. Making them transparent or something would probably require a haxie, and would thus be less desirable.

[alex_kac]

Yeah, hiding is good for me. I have my dock set to have hidden apps show their dock icons in transparent mode.

The other choice is to minimize all that apps's windows. That would work for single window apps. So if we could hide or minimize apps on a per app basis with custom settings for each app, I think we'd have a good small utility.

[Amorya]

Transparency would be good, but it should be gradual. For instance, iTunes starts to fade out after two minutes, and by five minutes it's all gone. But Dreamweaver starts the fade at 25minutes and is gone at 30.

Amorya

[Sal]

Here's the AppleScript code for hiding all apps except the one in the foreground:

Code:
tell application "System Events"
	set visible of (every process whose visible is true and frontmost is false) to false
end tell

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Sal:
Here's the AppleScript code for hiding all apps except the one in the foreground:

Hey, it's great to see you around here again!

[thePurpleGiant]

Originally posted by Sal:
Here's the AppleScript code for hiding all apps except the one in the foreground:

Code:
tell application "System Events"
	set visible of (every process whose visible is true and frontmost is false) to false
end tell

Whoa, haven't seen you round here in a while Sal.

[McKenna]

Originally posted by Sal:
Here's the AppleScript code for hiding all apps except the one in the foreground:

Code:
tell application "System Events"
	set visible of (every process whose visible is true and frontmost is false) to false
end tell

Great to see you posting again!

Now -- how is the book coming? Is it done? Got a sample you'd like to share with us?

Thanks for everything!

--Tom