• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Mark Ratledge .com

writer and wordpress consultant in montana

  • Home
  • About
  • Articles & Columns
    • Points in Case
    • Slackjaw
    • McSweeney’s
    • Medium
    • Random Tech
    • The Buffalo Post
    • Words on WordPress
    • Rocks and Bones
    • Mac Q & A on Macs and macOS
    • State of the Arts Tech Talk
  • WordPress
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Mac Q & A on Macs and macOS / Mac Q & A: Helping with Screen Distractions

Mac Q & A: Helping with Screen Distractions

February 21, 2013 by Mark Ratledge

My Mac Q & A Question: In an airport I saw someone with a Macbook that had the screen blacked out except for one window. It looks like that would help with being distracted from other things on the screen when I’m working. Do you know how I can do that? H.L., Missoula

Sounds like they were using one of many Apps out there that will black out a screen and hide the dock when you’re working on one document. I’m sure it was configurable to allow the program you want to use the front window, but easy to return to the full screen.

I looked around and found quite a few that are free and some that are 99 cents to $19. But a free one called Isolator works great for me. I downloaded it and had it running in a minute or two. Download it and open the disk image and then copy the Isolator icon to your Applications folder. Then double-click that and isolator will give you a little square icon in your menu bar. In that is a menu where you can start Isolator each time you start your Mac, select if the Dock still shows when everything else is blcked out, quit Isolator when you’re done, and more.

See a screenshot from the Isolator site below. Download from Isolator. I might start using it all the time myself.

isolator-slab

Related Posts:
  • Mac Q & A: How Do I Get Rid of Programs in the Dock?
  • Mac Q & A: Working with the OS X Dock
  • Mac Q & A: Make an Archive of a CD or DVD
  • Mac Q & A: MainMenu for Maintenance
  • Mac Q & A: Sharing a Screen with another Mac

Primary Sidebar

Stack Exchange
profile for markratledge on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites
I'm a "Top Rated" consultant on Upwork

Copyright © 2022 · Mark Ratledge Privacy and Terms of Use