eWorld

Did you ever wonder what your frontmost application is? You’ve just quit a couple, switched a couple of times with command-tab, and closed a window and now you’re not completely sure if its application was closed as well.

You take a look at the Dock, but nothing gives away the frontmost application. You see a couple of them are running, but which one will quit if your itching fingers hit command-Q? You can always look at the menu, of course, but wouldn’t it be easier to see an icon instead of only text?

All Focus does, is show you the active application’s icon. Because its function is that simple, I’ve thrown in the usual junk of customizability: size, transparency, position on screen and window layering can all be adjusted to your needs. Version 2.1 adds an optional clock, analog or digital.

You can have a small icon in the bottom-left of your screen telling you which application is active, or a giant transparent icon on your desktop to make your work environment somewhat more, eh, dynamic.

Focus is ideal to put in your Login items in your System preferences. Focus doesn’t appear in the dock, and stays clear of it if you change resolutions or move the dock. Apart from nine standard screen positions you can drag Focus anywhere to be just there where you see it but doesn’t get in the way.

Focus has its own preferences window which is shown as soon as you click on its big icon. If you close the preferences window you can get it back by control-clicking on the big icon; a menu will appear allowing you to show the preferences window again. You can quit Focus from this menu too, or by using the button in the preferences window.