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Tim-L wrote:
On 12/23/2017 03:12 PM, Girvin Herr wrote:


On 12/23/2017 11:38 AM, John Jason Jordan wrote:
<Started a new thread, was <Fixing 5.0 appearance">

On Sat, 23 Dec 2017 10:59:12 -0800
Girvin Herr <gherrl@fastmail.com> dijo:

At this point I should also add that there has long been a bug with
floating toolbars on all Linux installations that I know of - that
is, if you have a toolbar floating it defeats the normal focus
actions of the Linux X-windows GUI. An example would make this more
clear. Let us suppose that I have only one Writer document window
open on the screen. While working on it I discover that I need to
use another program, e.g., Firefox, so I switch to a Firefox window,
leaving the Writer document on the screen. The Firefox window will
come up on top of the Writer document, as it should, but when I
later minimize the Firefox window I see the Writer document is now
completely visible again, but focus has not been restored to it. And
that means that clicking on its icon in the Xfce panel will not
minimize it until I click on the window to restore its focus. Also,
when I later restore a Writer document window quite often the
floating formatting toolbar fails to appear. I can go into View >
Toolbars and I see that it is still checked, but to get it back I
have to un-check it, then re-check it. And when I restore a document
to the screen by clicking on it in the Xfce panel it comes up on the
screen, but again without focus. I wish there was a hotkey to open
the Formatting toolbar, like F11 for the Styles toolbar, but I can't
find one. I tried to create one, but I failed.

I have lived with this bug since forever, with all versions on OO and
now LO. I was hoping that this would have finally been fixed in the
new LO 5.4, but it remains unchanged. And a few years ago I asked on
one of these lists and after much discussion I tracked the problem
down to my floating toolbars, that is, if none of my floating
toolbars are on the screen the document window takes focus as it
should, like all other application windows. Also, the problem is
specific to each individual document window, e.g., as I write this I
have three Writer documents open, I closed the floating toolbars on
one of them and that window then took focus properly, but I left the
toolbars on the other two documents and they still did not take
focus properly.
I, too, use xfce4 and this window focus problem might not be an LO
issue. I use several other apps and have experienced this frustrating
focus problem with them too. I usually don't notice it until after I
type some text and discover the text is not showing up in the window I
expected. It would be an interesting datapoint if someone in this
forum who uses KDE or another Linux desktop would confirm or deny they
experience it with those desktops.
That is very interesting. I have hundreds and hundreds of applications
installed, as I do a lot of writing and desktop publishing, as well as
working with video and multimedia. LO is the only app where the focus
problem happens for me, although it does sometimes happen on web
pages, but that is surely a problem with the html code written by the
site developer. The browser itself has no problem when restored after
being minimized. I also have two computers, a laptop and a desktop,
both with Xubuntu 14.04, and I have the same focus problem on both of
them.

Yes, it would be very interesting to hear from other Linux users. We
might need to take this to another venue if the problem is not related
to LO. I originally researched this and discovered the connection
between the focus problem and floating toolbars at least a couple years
ago and I no longer remember where I asked - surely one of the OO or LO
listservs, and possibly the Ubuntu and/or Xfce forums.

I should also add that I don't believe that I ever filed a bug report.

For the record, I am using Slackware 14.2 Linux (k4.4.88) and xfce 4.12 on an AMD dual-core Athlon 8GB RAM desktop workstation. The other apps I have seen this behavior on are gschem, an electronic engineering schematic capture program, and LibreCAD. Both of these programs switch window focus at odd, but seemingly consistent, times, like after a command is executed it will switch to a related un-docked window, where I will have to switch back to the main window to continue my work. Annoying. I have not used LO in the manner of this thread, so I cannot comment on the focus problem in LO. I have never filed a bug-report on it anywhere either, probably because it is not fatal, just annoying.
HTH.
Girvin Herr


I am trying to follow this thread, but you may be using "window focus" a little differently than I do.

To be honest, I follow what you are saying and I believe that I never seen what you are describing under Ubuntu with MATE desktop.  I am running Ubuntu MATE 16.04.  Has any of you tried the MATE desktop to see if you get this same "focus problem"?

I currently us a laptop with dual core Intel B950 with its Intel's HD graphics. plus 4 GB memory. This is currently my "default" system. My newest laptop is an Intel 4-Core 3700 with 8 GB memory. Although, I do not use that 4-core system much for document creation - currently.  I tend to use it for audio/video presentations, for now. I do keep it up-to-date with most of my Linux packages, just like my "default" one. Both run Ubuntu MATE 16.04, till the 18.04 comes out.

I am still using LibreOffice 5.4.3.2, but hopefully go to 5.4.4.x soon.

Linux Mint 18.3 MATE
LibreOffice 5.1.6.2 (latest from Mint repository; I haven't got around to adding the PPA yet)

Open a terminal (just as a third application)
Open Firefox
Open LibreOffice Writer (no floating toolbars)
Switch for Firefox
Minimise Firefox
* LibreOffice gets focus (indicated by shading of the title bar and typing puts text into the document)

View > Toolbars > Form Controls (this is floating)
Switch to Firefox
Minimise Firefox
* LibreOffice does not appear to get focus (indicated by title bar shading) but typing does put text into the document (so it does actually have keyboard focus)

Switch to terminal
Switch to LibreOffice
Switch to Firefox
Minimise Firefox
* Terminal (not LibreOffice) gets focus

Switch to LibreOffice
Click within the document text area
Switch to Firefox
Minimise Firefox
* LibreOffice gets proper focus (indicated by shading of the title bar and typing puts text into the document)

Whether this is a LibreOffice or window manager issue (or interaction between the two) I couldn't say. But that's the behaviour I observe. I usually just switch to the window I want without minimising others, so probably wouldn't notice whether this happens with other applications.

--
Mark.


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