Spirited Away - 0.7.2

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.

.7 does not work with leopard. Use .6. You can get it here http://www.tuaw.com/2007/05/02/spirited-away-lives-again-and-shoo-apps/

Straight download: http://homepage.mac.com/koh/.Public/SpiritedAway/Spirited%20AwayUB.zip

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:

• 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.

• 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.)

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.

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.