Mac: clicking between programs takes 2 clicks

Question

This is a simple thing, but I do not see it in the settings.

So, I'm on my new Mac, working in a program like Safari or Firefox. I have a window in the background for another program, and it has a button. I want to press this button, but you need to double-click, once to switch programs, and once press the button.

I want my mouse to be hotter. Is there any way to do this?

Answer 1

This is called click-through , and recommendations for its use are described in the Apple Human Interface Guide. By default, all Cocoa controls support click-through, and the feature must be disabled by the software developer. Some reasons for disabling it are described in the manual:

Avoid providing clicks for an element or action, the result of which may be dangerous or unwanted. In particular, avoid including a click for an element that:

• Performs a potentially dangerous action that users cannot undo (for example, the "Delete" button in Mail).
• Performs an action that is difficult or impossible to undo (for example, the "Send" button in Mail).
• Rejects the dialog without telling the user what action was taken (for example, the Save button in the Save dialog box, which overwrites the existing file and automatically rejects the dialog)
• Removes the user from the current context (for example, selecting a new item in the Finder column that changes the purpose of the Finder window)

To answer the actual question: None. There are no global settings for this. Although it may be possible for an individual application to implement settings for itself, this is not what I saw.

Change To answer another part of the question, is there any way to do this? The answer is kind. If you are looking for a Mac focus follows mouse or a Mac sloppy focus , you will find some utilities, such as Zooom / 2 , which focuses on each window as it moves on the mouse. This is something that may annoy some people, but it may work for you.

Answer 2

To some extent useful: you can hold Command and click on an unfocused window. The click will go through, but the window will not focus. This is useful if you have a partially closed window in the background and you want to save it this way by clicking it.

BUT, if you have two windows side by side that are not covered, it is too disappointing that you have to click TWICE every time you want to interact with them interchangeably. It would be very nice if it were possible to disable the "function" ...