I think it was Dave Shea you saw it first from. I believe he mentioned it on Mezzoblue at one point.

Yep, i found it: http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2005/08/08/mac_zoom_tri/index.php

Good post, I hadn’t ever poked around the options section before.

Another option is to use the built in fullscreen mode. But to do this you have to enter single user mode by logging in as ‘>console’ (no password) at the (username and password) login screen. Or alternatively you can reboot OS X holding Command-S. You are then dumped into fullscreen text mode BSD.

This means you have to use emacs or vi or any other terminal based text editor, but it also means you can’t get to any other distracting programs unless you log out completely and reenter the GUI.

This is the only reason that I was considering maintaining a linux box for writing my thesis. I found this today after reading this article although I have been looking for it for around a year and a half. Maybe you all know this but for me this is the ultimate!!

HTH Sam

What, no sexist comments about how only men would need such a thing? ;-)

Seriously, it stinks that it’s so difficult to do fullscreen mode in OS X. Heck, when I want to do that in KDE, I can just hit Alt-F3, then select Advanced->Fullscreen. (or Alt-F3,v,f.)

That seems like a huge hassle. Why not just select your app you want in front, then use cmd-opt-h to “hide others” (or use the menu command). Then, resize the window in front of you.

If you still can’t concentrate on the one thing in front of you, perhaps seeking professional help would be a better option. That amount of attention deficit should be examined, as it may be indicative of something more serious.

For writing without distractions in full screen mode, in editors that can also manage your documents, you may like to try (on the Mac):

1) Ulysses (expensive) http://www.blue-tec.com/ulysses/

2) CopyWrite (many similar features to Ulysses) http://www.bartastechnologies.com/products/copywrite/

My only beef with CopyWrite is that in their quest for simplicity they refuse to add a “smart quotes” option. Since curly quote marks were only nudged aside because of the limitations of typewriters, I’d argue that proper quote marks, cheerfully managed by the writing software, should be a core feature, but that’s another issue.

Copywrite allows the user to specify colours in full screen mode.

What I miss on my mac is the ability to automatically have windows put together vertically, i.e. next to eachother. Windows has that options, one of it’s few improvements over Mac. It just makes ‘plagiarism’ that much easier ;)… kidding, but I tend to work a lot with my email + browser or word + browser open.

Is 43 folders a mac only shop? as a windows & linux user and i’ve not seen much info/help here for GTD type tools…

Timo, go see Why we’re “Mac-centric,” and what it means for you in the 43 Folders FAQ.

Okay, on the Windows front (mostly because employers have forced me there for so long), it seems that I don’t have such issues as eliminating distractions. I get to choose whether or not to turn on things like AIM, and do manage my pop-up notification for email. Outside of that, unless the network admin has installed some sort of alert system, I get to “maximize” my standard Microsoft Word screen, and write to my heart’s content, with my phone on DND.

Now with that problem solved, unfortunately, I start the littany of “I hate Microsoft products” rant somewhere else.

It’s good to see that the Mac community is helping by making all these “distraction management” tools available. I’ll have to fight harder to move back to Mac!

Spirited Away is useful for those of us easily distracted as well. It automatically hides unused windows for you.

Guest Post: Guide to Guerilla Tactics of a Livable GTD system

Lifehacker reader Mike Mahon submitted this thorough, humorous and practical essay on how he’s incorporated productivity systems and tools into his life. With his permission, we are reprinting it here in full. I am not sure as to exactly when…

eeeehhh…this is a bit cheesy. My text does weird things when zoomed in a notch—it tends to bump up and down by a pixel when selected and deselected.

But if it works for you, power to ya.

If you don’t want to pay for Ulysses or Copywrite, I’ve found that Jer’s Novel Writer (free at the moment but possibly not for always) has a nice full screen mode.

Not sure what you mean by “Flip off all the chrome you can stand.” Is there a way in the Mac OS to turn off the chrome-looking enhancements?

Brilliant. Am going to use it all the time. Very timely too as I’ve been trawling the interweb like a crazywoman in the last couple of days, desperately downloading demo’s to every text editing app with fullscreen I can find. (Recently found hidden away beta with lots of potential, http://www.rumramruf.com/ScrivenerBeta/info.html ) - unfortunately rejecting most for various fussy personal aesthetic and other reasons to long and boring to go into here.

Filthy-desperate, I tell you!

I’m about to take myself and my ibook on a three-week brainstorming and writing holiday, to a sunny place, and in lieu of finding an app that does what I want it to in all other ways, OR one that actually even implements fullscreen itself in a way I like…I am going to utilise this junior, but fabulous, and ‘it’ll damn well do the job for right now’ systemspref-option-cum-hack.

Bless you Merlin, for your timeliness - I will now go on my holiday with a bit more hair….and sans nagging shareware reminders, proprietary formats or database issues.

Just me, the ZOOM, textedit, and some kinky green type on an endless sea of black….

Aahhh. (sigh) Simple, simple pleasures sometimes.

:-)

when i’ve run into the “have to focus” (cough) problem, I use X11 in fullscreen mode, and use vim. my 2cents.

oh, another thing i forgot to mention— I also use a chromeless windowmanger under x11 (ion, to be exact), so I’m not tempted to go click around. May want to give it a try…

macjournal is an excellent application that also includes a full screen mode.

For those of you who don’t mind some fiddling who have a *nix box with X11 (I’m lead to believe this includes Mac’s if beaten with a big enough stick) try looking at Ion as a Window Manager (the dev version Ion3 includes some nice features including good support for floating windows).

Its a tiling window manager that makes it easy to focus on things, or split things. After this you’ll feel alt+tab to be inadequate as you want to be able to jump “left” a column of windows, then “down” a window.

Proper organisation, very nice, very light, very fast, very customisable. As a warning it does need a severe poking to make it play nice, my configs for it are available online, they aren’t nearly perfect but they’re something else besides the official ones to work off (those are well commented btw).

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