Afloat 2.2 Adds Support For Snow Leopard and New Features

Damien — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:32:00 +0000

When Snow Leopard was launched, many applications broke because of compatibility issue. Afloat was one of them (mainly due to the plugsuit issue). The good news is, Afloat 2.2 was launched to patch up the issue. Now you can get Afloat running smoothly in Snow Leopard.

For those who have not heard of Afloat, it is an useful software that you can use to keep an application window “always on top” of all other windows. One thing for sure, Afloat 2.2 brings some new features that are not available in previous version.

Make windows appear in all spaces

If you are a great fan of Spaces in Mac, then you are going to love this feature. If you are working on a project and have several application opened in different spaces, instead of traversing between spaces to access your data, you can make the application window follow you around, without you having to do the manual work.

Resize windows easily

The usual way of resizing an application window in Mac is to move your mouse to the right bottom corner of the window and drag to resize. With Afloat 2.2, you can now press Ctrl + Command + right mouse click to resize the window from anywhere inside the window region.

Move window around without dragging the title bar

By pressing Ctrl + Command + left mouse click, you can move the window around easily and quickly (similar to the Alt + left mouse click feature in Linux Compiz).

Pin to the desktop

You can also pin a window to the desktop and make it persistent. With this feature turn on, even the “Show Desktop” command will not hide the window.

Existing functionality

For those who are new to Afloat, here are some of the functionality that existed since version 1

Afloat: keep the window “always on top”. Accessible via the shortcut key Ctrl + Command + A or via the Window menu. (Note: the shortcut key don’t work in Preview)

Add transparency to windows: Press Ctrl + Command + mouse wheel scroll to change the transparency of the window. This is useful if you just want to take a quick peek at the windows beneath.

Make window an overlay: This turns a window into an overlay. When this mode is on, it will not respond to any mouse click or keyboard entry.

One thing to note: Afloat does not work with all applications. It only works for Cocoa based applications, such as Safari, Preview, iChat etc. Carbon based applications like iTunes and Finder do not get the love.

Afloat 2.2 Adds Support For Snow Leopard and New Features originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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[Mac]: Keeping Your Application Window ‘Always On Top’

Damien Oh — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:40:43 +0000

What seems to be a simple task in Linux turns out to be almost impossible in Mac. One of my favorite feature in Ubuntu is the ability to keep some of my application windows ‘always on top’ so that I can refer to them easily. When I switched to Mac, it turns out that this feature is not available at all. Considering how user-friendly Mac Leopard is, I am quite disappointed that this feature is not available by default. Luckily, Afloat from Infinite Labs manage to the tackle the problem.

Afloat is a donation-ware that allows you to set your application windows ‘always on top’ and keep afloat on top of all others. In addition, there are some sweet surprises, such as making your window transparent or turn the window into a translucent overlay so you can access to several windows in one glance. (It reminds me of the transparent feature in Linux Compiz)

The latest version of Afloat uses PlugSuit as its application manager. It is also compatible with SIMBL, an InputManager for managing application plugins.

Installing Afloat

Download Afloat here.

Double click to open the installer

Install the app

Now open your applications (such as Safari, iChat, iWork etc). Go to Window->Keep Afloat. Your current application window will now be always on top of other window.

Some screenshots:

Window in translucent mode

Afloat in overlay mode

[Mac]: Keeping Your Application Window ‘Always On Top’ originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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