Apr 27 2009
How to reduce the clutter on your Mac desktop
(from Episode #25 of The Lab with Leo Laporte)
Desktopple Pro is a system enhancement for Mac OS X made by FoggyNoggin Software. It started out its life as simply Desktopple (which is still available for free from FoggyNoggin) and it was intended as a method by which you could hide your desktop. People who write tutorials or tech manuals take a lot of screenshots and Desktopple allows you to do that without showing the ever increasing collection of Picture.png files on your Desktop. The original Desktopple also found a market among those that give presentations in Keynote or PowerPoint as it allowed them to project their computer’s screen without giving people a glimpse at their private desktop files. It serves as a bit of a “boss button� for your desktop files.
When Desktopple went “pro� it took on the customary price tag (only $17 in this case) but it also added a bunch of new features:
First off, Desktopple Pro is a preference pane, which means that when it is activated it shows no Dock icon. It doesn’t use “Application Enhancer� so don’t worry if you’re concerned about keeping your system APE-free. It is accessed by a key command, from a menu bar icon or from a Dashboard Widget.
Desktopple Pro’s bread and butter is still Desktop Hiding. What the software does is kind of slip a second desktop picture (aka wallpaper) over the original desktop and all of its icons. You desktop is still there, you just can’t see it anymore. The appearance of the desktop picture is entirely of your choosing: you can make it the same as your current desktop picture, you can choose a different picture or a solid color or gradient.
You can make Desktopple Pro always hide the desktop or you can have the software be triggered by a key command or by asking Desktopple Pro to activate whenever you launch certain programs. Desktopple Pro also plays nice with Exposé, multiple monitors, and Spaces (Leopard’s multiple desktop feature).
Desktopple Pro has added Window Cleaning, which hides any application that isn’t the foreground application. FoggyNoggin has provided an out in the form of an exceptions list that allows you to exclude certain applications from being hidden. Fans of SpiritedAway (the Mac OS X system enhancement, not the awesome anime film) will be happy to see this feature, especially if they are using an Intel-based Mac.
Menu Dimming is another new feature. It hides the menu bar and brings it back whenever you move your cursor to the top of the screen. It doesn’t remove access to the menu bar, it only hides it when you’re not using it. This feature is very similar to a freeware system enhancement called Menu Shade, but rolls it and all these other features into one neat package.
Productivity fanatics from the David Allen “Getting Things Done� cult should love Desktopple Pro. In fact it brings to mind the “Distracted Mac� episode of MacBreak only Desktopple Pro replaces 3 of the recommended applications does away with all those extra dock and menu bar icons—AND—Desktopple Pro runs as a Universal Binary. So it runs quickly on Intel-based Macs today.
To use Desktopple Pro is simple. Install it by double-clicking the .prefPane file, activate it in your System Preferences and then choose which features you want and set them up to your liking. Then it’s as simple as toggling Desktopple Pro using the key command you chose or from the Dashboard Widget, and customizing it from the menu bar (if you chose to use the menu bar icon).
The clutter just vanishes.
Desktopple Pro costs USD$17 and offers a FREE 15 day trial. Desktopple Basic is available for FREE but only gives you desktop hiding.
Download Desktopple Pro from www.foggynoggin.com
It’s amazing to watch software evolve. When 
What about all those windows? For every app you have open you probably have at least one or two windows. That clutter can add up. You can put Desktopple Pro in charge of hiding those windows after a certain amount of time has passed since an app has been sitting in the background. Your current application says front and center, but those other ones you’re not currently using just hide until they’re needed.