macOS hide or turn off control glow activation feature

[printf]

when a control, such as a text edit control is activated by the user, it is decorated with a glow that matches the users appearance theme to indicate the control has focus. i'm not sure what the technical name for this feature is, but if you reply to this post, when you click on the 'title' or 'message' text boxes, you'll see the behavior i'm referring to.

i've seen it done before though - photoshop cs3, for example does it in their adjustments dialogs - like Brightness/Contrast. anyone have any idea how?




if you care to know why i'd want to do this, you can read the following ramblings:
i have a few controls in a dialog where this 'glow' looks less than stellar against the background and i was wondering how it can be turned off. i also have one control that is positioned right next to an icon drawn to the window, to give the effect of a single control. however, when focus is placed on the control, the icon, obviously is left out of all the glowing fun and the illusion is lost. :/

 

[garethlewis2]

CS3 is a Carbon app. They aren't using Aqua controls, they rolled their own.

 

[printf]

perfect, my app is carbon as well - what did they use to build their controls? specifically their text edit controls?

 

[garethlewis2]

They have their own cross development platform, this includes compiler, gui builder, etc. They don't use Xcode or any other tools, it would make it impossible for them to build an app for Windows and Mac otherwise.

 

[kainjow]

It's called a focus ring. In 10.5+ you can use HIViewShowsFocus() to enable or disable it, but I can't find the non-HIView method that would work on 10.4.