Spirited Away for Mac

User Reviews

• Remove distractions from your desktop

  rheldmann4/9/2011

  Pros

  Allows focus and is customizable in creating a quiet desktop.

  Cons

  None I have found.

  Summary

  Cleans up your desktop to allow focusing your attention.

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• Spirited Away - Works as Promised

  G5QuadWalt5/28/2009

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Spirited Away is a convenient freeware utility that does what it promises - Hides Apps that aren't in active use. Applications that are doing something in the background are also hidden. Spirited Away works as a menu bar app and doesn't occupy space in the Dock. The amount of time it waits before hiding apps can be adjusted from 30 - 600 seconds. If you don't want an app to be hidden, you can simply select from a list of running apps the ones to ignore. By selecting a check box or not, you can select whether it runs at login. Spirited Away can be inactivated without quitting it or it can be quit from it's menu. It is also designed to cooperate with iChat. I like and use this utility and I'm never without it.

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• Almost there :-)

  soundsgoodtome4/14/2007

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I'm glad someone's working on this idea. But although it's free, it's missing features found in an older app, AutoHide, which I still use. Unfortunately, AutoHide hasn't been updated in nearly 4 years, and although it still works, it's become quirky. (Every now and then, it's prefs window opens unexpectedly. Harmless, but weird....) Still, AutoHide has features that Spirited Away doesn't have: â?¢ The ability to hide applications *immediately*. Why is SA's minimum 30 seconds? Since it's a slider, why doesn't it start at zero?? I don't understand the logic, here. â?¢ A "Never hide when switching to these apps" list. (This is different from SA's "exclusion" list. AutoHide lets you make the extremely useful distinction between the behavior when switching *to* an app and when switching *away* from it, which I have found invaluable.) * Finally, as others have mentioned, having SA's prefs window open when launched is the epitome of irony, given the purpose of the app in the first place. Please fix this. :-) Although everyone loves freeware, I'd be happy to pay a shareware fee for Spirited Away, if more sophisticated features were added. Since it's at v0.5, I'll remain hopeful.... But for now, I'm sticking with AutoHide. (I recommend v1.3.6.... v1.3.8 introduced bugs which were never fixed.)

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• Surprisingly useful

  blistserv11/7/2006

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />This is a little utility that really should be part of the OS. It removes window clutter for those of us with multiple apps open. My only wish is that the time-to-hide could differentially set by apps, rather than a global hide time. Downside: in my attempt to contact the developer about this wish, (I know, it is bad form to make wishes on freeware,) the site could not be accessed. And while it appears to work fine on 10.4.8, it is unclear how long it will be supported.

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• Surprisingly useful.

  josh.musick3/21/2006

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />I really like this app. If you happen to be overwhelmed/distracted by screen junk, inadvertantly drifting to random distractions, I highly recommend giving this thing a shot. I've been using it for a few weeks and I didn't expect it to make such a big difference. That, and it's free and easy to understand. Thanks a lot.

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• Best of both worlds ... up to a point

  macfeller5/9/2005

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />First, if the VT link doesn't work go to the developer's site and DL from there. Works as advertised. I use a couple apps mostly coz they have a hide feature. There have been times when I'd rather not have other apps hidden. This one gives a happy medium. I agree about menu bar space. I encourage similar minded folk to email the developer. The only negative thing is lack of information. Maybe it's a language thang. In the drop down list from the menu bar icon is an "Exclde" list. It has all the running apps.

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• Working Great and has fix for preferences bug

  jehrler4/21/2005

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Just what I was looking for! Inobtrusive, effective and priced right. Would be nice if we could pick the color of the menubar icon though. As for the preferences popping up every-time on launch or not remembering your excluded apps, he has a note on the website that "When Spirited Away don't save preferences (and show preferences window every startup it). Please delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.drikin.SpiritedAway.plist, and try again." That trick worked like a charm for our two computers.

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• Love it, love it, love it!

  baldyauldeejt11/11/2004

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Admit it, you've got to love it. Such a simple idea but so flippin' good! Especially if you're easily distracted by open windows in the background and can't afford to have that sorted out by a shrink. One little thing though, get rid of the preference pane on startup - it's the only thing that doesn't disappear. Very distracting...

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• Like others have said

  sjonke110/18/2004

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Very nice idea, but it needs an exclusion list, and shouldn't show prefs at every startup, perhaps just the first time ever launched.

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• Nice!

  MaxOS10/17/2004

  Pros

  Cons

  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />But ... include/exclude list ? For DragThing for example

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