# Focus

> Make one window the big one, then Unfocus to get your layout back.

Source: https://curtains.app/help/focus/

Focus makes one window the big one: to focus a window is to make it fill the stage, and Unfocus puts your layout back exactly as it was.

## How Focus works

There is one Focus action, and it follows one rule: the focused window becomes the big one.

- **In the Focus layout**, the focused window is the large window, and the others stay in the filmstrip. Focusing the large window again changes nothing, because there is nothing to go back to.
- **In Grid, Follow and Free**, the focused window grows to fill the canvas. Viewers see only that window until you **Unfocus**, and then everything returns to the exact previous layout.

While a window fills the canvas, its pill on the preview and its row in the **Order** list read **Focused**, and the action is called **Unfocus**.

*Image: The preview in Grid with Google Chrome focused: it fills the canvas, with a Focused pill at its top right.*

## Focus a window

Use whichever is closest:

- Double-click the window on the preview.
- Double-click its row in the **Order** list, in the **Layout** panel.
- Press `B` on a window or a row you've reached with Tab.
- In the Focus layout, click a thumbnail in the filmstrip or a row in the Order list.
- Press `⌃⌥1` to `⌃⌥6` from any app to focus the first to sixth window. These only focus; they never unfocus.
- Press `⌃⌥F` from any app to focus the active window, which is the shared window in front on your desktop. Other apps in front are ignored.
- Click the tab on a shared window and choose **Focus**.
- On the floating remote, open the **⋯** menu and choose **Focus next window** or **Focus previous window**.

*Illustration: The tab menu of a shared window, open. Its items are Bring to front, Focus (checked), Blur entire window, Add blur region, Window size, Unshare window and Open Curtains Studio.*

## Unfocus

To get your layout back, do any of these while a window fills the canvas:

- Double-click the focused window again.
- Press `Esc` in Studio.
- Press `⌃⌥F`. If no shared window is on screen, it ends a focus that fills the canvas.
- Press `B` on the focused window or row.

Choosing a different layout, moving a window in Free, or taking the focused window off the canvas also ends the focus, and shows the new layout.

If you focus a different window while one is focused, Curtains switches to it and still remembers the original layout.

## Hotkeys can be changed

The global Focus keys are listed in **Settings › Shortcuts**, where you can change each one.

## Related

- [Layouts](https://curtains.app/help/layouts/): the four layouts Focus builds on.
- [Rearrange windows](https://curtains.app/help/rearrange-windows/): swap windows without focusing.
- [Keyboard shortcuts](https://curtains.app/help/keyboard-shortcuts/)
- [Floating remote and menu bar](https://curtains.app/help/floating-remote-and-menu-bar/)