The auto-dim-other-buffers-mode is a global minor mode which makes
windows without focus less prominent. With many windows in a frame,
this mode helps recognise which is the selected window by providing
a non-intrusive but still noticeable visual indicator.
The preferred way to install the mode is by grabbing
auto-dim-other-buffers package form NonGNU ELPA:
M-x package-install RET auto-dim-other-buffers RET
Once installed, enable the mode with:
M-x auto-dim-other-buffers-mode RET
To make it enabled every time Emacs starts, add the following to Emacs
initialisation file (typically ~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.d/init.el or
~/.config/emacs/init.el):
(add-hook 'after-init-hook (lambda ()
(when (fboundp 'auto-dim-other-buffers-mode)
(auto-dim-other-buffers-mode t))))
To configure how dimmed buffers look, customise
auto-dim-other-buffers. This can be accomplished by:
M-x customize-face RET auto-dim-other-buffers RET
More options can be found in auto-dim-other-buffers customisation
group which can be accessed with:
M-x customize-group RET auto-dim-other-buffers RET
Highlighting of fringes can be done by removing fringe entry from
auto-dim-other-buffers-affected-faces list. Either via customising
the variable or using the following snippet:
(setq auto-dim-other-buffers-affected-faces
(assq-delete-all 'fringe auto-dim-other-buffers-affected-faces))
By its nature, auto-dim-other-buffers-mode often forces full-window
refreshes which may cause flickering on some systems and displays. To
mitigate it, try disabling fringe highlighting which—due to Emacs’
display code limitation—require full-frame refresh. See Customisation
section above for instruction how to do it.
Text which should be hidden in org-mode is not
To hide text, org-mode uses org-hide face whose foreground is set
to the background colour of the default face. When
auto-dim-other-buffers-mode changes background of a dimmed window it
also needs to be applied to the org-hide face. The good news is
that this is supported out of the box. The caveat is that it requires
that auto-dim-other-buffers and auto-dim-other-buffers-hide are
changed in sync.
If text which should be hidden in org-mode is visible faintly, the most likely reason is that the latter face has not been updated. The solution is to customise it via
M-x customize-face RET auto-dim-other-buffers-hide RET
and set its foreground and background to match background of the
auto-dim-other-buffers.
Note that despite its name, the mode operates on windows rather than
buffers. In other words, selected window is highlighted and all other
windows are dimmed even if they display the same buffer. The package
is named auto-dim-other-buffer for historical reasons.
Requires Emacs 27 to work.