Mockups based on Qt Assistant:

1. The current state - focus information is inaccessible:

http://kexi-project.org/pics/usability/focus/assistant_inaccessible.png.part


2. A mockup of the left pane focused - both dock's header and the tab are 
highlighted when focused (highlighting the tab is usable when there are more 
focusable widgets than just tab in a pane):
 
http://kexi-project.org/pics/usability/focus/assistant_focus_on_the_leftpane.png


3. A mocup of the main pane focused - the tab is highlighed, AND the left pane 
highlight color is in "inactive mode" - for my color scheme this means the 
color is lighter. This gives a hint where the focus is, the only place where 
the dark-gray area is displayed. 

http://kexi-project.org/pics/usability/focus/assistant_focus_on_the_mainpane.png

PS: Of course the focus color is blue for by default, substitute it with 
anything that will be the default in KDE4, even orange color is quite good 
(catching the eye) - see the example of MSAccess 2007: 
http://www.geekpedia.com/gallery/fullsize/Microsoft Access 2007.jpg

-- 
regards / pozdrawiam, Jaroslaw Staniek
 Sponsored by OpenOffice Polska (http://www.openoffice.com.pl/en) to work on
 Kexi & KOffice: http://www.kexi-project.org, http://www.koffice.org
 KDE3 & KDE4 Libraries for MS Windows: http://kdelibs.com, http://www.kde.org