Focus
Overview
Focus is a setting which will 'dim' out the portions of map that you're not currently interested in. The goal is to remove distractions and let you focus on one area of the map. See below for an example:
Focus has 2 modes.
- If one or more topics are selected when you enable focus then those topics will remain in focus even if you select a different topic. This is known as focus lock. This works well when editing a section of the map.
- If no topics are selected when focus is enabled then the currently selected topic will be 'in focus'. Change the selection and the focus also changes. This can be a good option for presentations.
NB: This option is also available on the iOS app (in the menu under the gear toolbar button.)
Why not just hide those 'out of focus' topics?
Good question! That is a common request. Indeed, that is how I originally implemented the feature. However, whilst testing, I sometimes found that I would open a map and half my topics were 'gone'. After a few seconds of panic I'd realise the issue. I decided that this was not a good user interface and would result in a lot of angry feedback when people thought they'd lost their data.