macOS windows requiring an explicit click to make active, before UI elements inside can be clicked

[Phat^Trance]

I'm a new Mac user, having been issued with a MacBook Air (m1) when I started a new job three months ago. A Windows user before, I'm now getting quite used to the differences with using Apple's desktop environment.

One thing that is still slowing me down a little is the requirement to explicitly click in an application window to make it active, before the UI elements inside that window can be interacted with.

For example, if I have two browser windows open side by side with the left one active, it takes two clicks to follow a link in the right hand window: one to make the window active, one to click the link.

This is in contrast to Windows, where you can click on a UI element in a inactive window and that single click will both activate the window and the element in it.

A similar issue is trying to copy and paste text between windows. I can select and copy text in an active terminal or editor, then paste it into another with 'right-click, Paste' but that doesn't activate the window. I still need to left-click the window to activate it before I can type into it.

In Windows, the right-click to paste would also activate the window. If I was pasting a command into a terminal, I could then just hit Enter to run it, whereas an extra mouse click is required on my Mac. This feels a little cumbersome.

Can this behaviour be adjusted to resemble Windows?

 

[elptdbi3lYI]

no

 

[frou]

Not entirely the same thing, but most of the time you can directly click something in an inactive window by holding the Cmd key when clicking.

This does not usually cause the active window to be changed, but it seems to in Safari's case (maybe because Safari natively handles Cmd-click (considers it equivalent to middle-click))

 

[gbynum]

Yes, a 2 month old thread; I was going to ask a similar question. Some previous experiences gave a window "focus", a term that is used for other meanings in MacOS, to the current (or last if the cursor went directly to the desktop) active window. From the @elptdbi3lYI response, I gather that isn't so. If there is only one remaining application on the desktop, eg when I close Mail after it was "on top" of Safari, it seems there is no application active (accepts key entry). The top line will still show the closed (in this example, Mail) Mail selections. It doesn't switch to Safari or Finder until a click in a Safari window or to Finder until a click on the desktop.

Is this as Apple intends?

 

[elptdbi3lYI]

Yes, a 2 month old thread; I was going to ask a similar question. Some previous experiences gave a window "focus", a term that is used for other meanings in MacOS, to the current (or last if the cursor went directly to the desktop) active window. From the @elptdbi3lYI response, I gather that isn't so. If there is only one remaining application on the desktop, eg when I close Mail after it was "on top" of Safari, it seems there is no application active (accepts key entry). The top line will still show the closed (in this example, Mail) Mail selections. It doesn't switch to Safari or Finder until a click in a Safari window or to Finder until a click on the desktop.

Is this as Apple intends?

You closed Mail's window, so it stays focused on Mail and is intended behaviour. You would have to quit Mail by cmd+q or through menu to make it focus on the next most recent application.