HazeOver Productivity Tips & Tricks

HazeOver runs in the background and adds a translucent dark screen behind a window you’re using at the moment. When you switch to a different window, HazeOver automatically shades previously used window. You can select between instant switch or a smooth animation. The application is energy-efficient and does not get in your way.

You can improve your experience by letting HazeOver use Accessibility features of your Mac. HazeOver will instantly react when you switch between windows and detect a focused window or Desktop even more reliably. Here are detailed instructions:

• Open “System Preferences” application;
• Click “Security & Privacy” item;
• Select “Privacy” tab;
• Click “Accessibility” item;
• Click a lock icon in the bottom left corner to allow changes;
• Enable “HazeOver” in the app list.

Use mouse wheel or trackpad scroll gesture to turn the brightness of your distractions down. Place the mouse pointer over HazeOver menu bar icon and scroll to adjust dimming intensity. Scrolling down to the minimum will disable HazeOver.

Toggle HazeOver dimming by double-clicking HazeOver icon in the menu bar. Or press ^⌥⌘H (Control, Option, Command and H) to turn HazeOver on or off. This keyboard shortcut can be changed in the Advanced app settings.

HazeOver can either highlight a front window on each connected screen or it can dim all secondary displays (those without keyboard focus). The latter option can let you more easily recognize which display is currently in focus. You can disable dimming completely on a particular display using “Secondary Displays” menu.

Dimming settings can be set to change automatically when using Auto Appearance on macOS Catalina (System Preferences > General). For example, turn dimming on when switching to Dark mode. Or have different dimming intensity and color when in Light mode.

Such settings will be saved and applied independently for Dark and Light appearance. See HazeOver Preferences > Advanced > Dark Mode Settings.

Tap “fn” key when dragging a file to temporarily disable dimming. Clicking on Desktop also disables dimming.

When you close or minimize all windows of an app, macOS does not switch to the next app. See the app name in the top left corner of the screen. HazeOver dims everything because the front app has no focused window. Highlighting a window from a different app would be misleading.

HazeOver can be fully controlled using AppleScript. You can toggle it, change dimming intensity, tint, animation duration, secondary display mode and multiple windows preference. Here’s how to try it out:

• Launch “AppleScript Editor” application;
• Select “File” > “New” menu;
• Paste this text into the script window:

tell application "HazeOver" to set intensity to 70

• Select “Script” > “Run” menu

HazeOver should instantly change dimming intensity. To find out all supported properties you need to add HazeOver app to AppleScript Editor library:

• Locate “HazeOver” application in your “Applications” folder;
• Drag-n-Drop “HazeOver” app on the “AppleScript Editor” Dock icon.

Available scripting properties can be found in “HazeOver Suite” > “application” section.

If you’d like to assign keyboard shortcuts to such actions or control other system settings, you can use ActionShortcuts app. For example, you could toggle Dark mode or hide the Dock and the menu bar when using HazeOver.

Contact me if you need help with automation or other features of HazeOver.