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Show HN: Zen Mode – a global focus mode for macOS

22 pointsby cafebeenyesterday at 8:52 PM9 commentsview on HN

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cafebeenyesterday at 8:53 PM

Author here, I made this macOS tool "Zen Mode" to provide a global focus mode that works across apps. There are plenty of things approaching this (HazeOver, Stage Manager, built-in full-screen mode, etc.) but nothing quite like I imagined. The basic idea is to have a shortcut to bring the current window front and center and fade everything else to black like a spotlight, and when you're done, the window returns home, and the lights come back up. A simple solution with about 250 lines of Hammerspoon Lua, built with Fable, though with many iterations to get the UX right. Happy to answer any questions or hear any feedback.

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desktopentreetoday at 4:12 AM

I agree with other comments that a multi-app version would be great. Overall, very simple and functions well. I like it.

loughnaneyesterday at 11:04 PM

As someone who has been on i3/xfce/debian for years and hasn’t opened Mac since 2013… can someone explain this to me? I hear “bring current window to front and fade everything else” and it feels like how it ought to be by default. Is it not?

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daft_pinkyesterday at 10:15 PM

I wish I could have a tool like this that would focus multiple windows from different apps this way. My workflow just requires different apps at the same time.

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heliskyr2today at 5:20 AM

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