Focus on the mouse

[AE]

Hello,
could someone please explain to me the difference between "focus follows mouse" and "focus under mouse" (when using KDE2)?

[bdg1983]

Not exactly sure how they both work.

Are you using the Control Centre? If so, then click on the ? (top right) and then on the option for the focus. Similar to the Windows function.

Just tried it and it works the same as Windows. Has the explanation right there for you.

[AE]

Hmm, it says


focus follows mouse: Moving the mouse pointer actively on to a normal window activate it, very practical if you are using the mouse a lot

focus under mouse: The window that happens to be under the mouse pointer becomes active.If the mouse points nowhere, the last window that was under the mouse has focus


Whats the difference? :confused:
The last window that was under the mouse do also keep focus when the mosue points nowhere and when using "focus follow mouse". And is there a way to move the mouse other than
actively? What windows isn't normal? Excuse me for being stupid, but I realy do not understand the difference.

[Strike]

Ah, "focus under mouse" sounds to me like "sloppy focus". With "focus under mouse", you can move the mouse out of the current window (maybe it's a movie window and you don't want the cursor in the way or something), and that window will still have the focus as long as you don't move the mouse onto another window. With "focus follows mouse", the focus goes to the background which is generally useless to have focus :)

[AE]

With "focus follows mouse", the focus goes to the background [...]


Nope, that's "focus strictly under mouse", both "focus under mouse" and "focus follows mouse" maintain focus to the last active window when the mouse points at the desktop. Thanks for the reply anyway.

[bdg1983]

Just select one at a time and use the desktop for awhile to see how it behaves and then try the other.

[paraschhabra]

The difference is when a new window comes up, it can steal focus from the current window when the setting is "Focus follows mouse". The mouse may not be under the new window, but it will be focussed.
In case of "Focus under mouse" the new window will have focus only if the mouse is under it.

[Steve R Jones]

paraschhabra - thanks for your post. Did you happen to notice this thread is TEN YEARS old;)

[camelrider]

And there's finally a fairly clear explanation. Of course KDE isn't quite what it used to be.