Re: [libreoffice-users] Focus issues on Linux

On Sat, 23 Dec 2017 11:38:32 -0800
John Jason Jordan <johnxj@gmx.com> dijo:

Thanks for all the comments. 

First, to restate my problem: I use Xfce4 on Xubuntu 14.04. I use the
window button panel applet so that when I start a program its icon
appears in the panel. I can minimize any such window by clicking on its
icon in the panel, and restore by clicking again on the icon. When the
window is restored it automatically gets focus. This behavior works for
all windows except LO document windows when I have a floating toolbar
for that window. Note that the problem only happens for LO document
windows; if I start LO with the main LO window the main window takes
focus when restored, as it should. Of course, the main window has no
floating toolbars. I have proved beyond any doubt that having floating
toolbars causes the problem.

It was suggested that I try 'focus follows mouse,' so I tried it. This
made my problem worse, because then no window got focus when restored
until I moved the mouse over it. Here is a query from the Xfce forums
that explains why this does not work for me:

        Hi there!  I'm using Xfce 4.10.1 on Ubuntu 14.04, and I'm
        having a hard time with its focus behavior.
        I want to enable "focus follows mouse" in the window manager
        settings, but when I do this, windows no longer receive focus
        when I bring them up via the tasklist.  For example, when I'm
        browsing in Chrome and want to bring up Emacs, I click on Emacs
        in the tasklist on xfce's panel. Emacs's window comes to the
        front, and I expect to be able to start typing right away, but
        Chrome still has the focus.  I have to move my cursor off of
        the tasklist and onto Emacs, before I can type anything.
        I want focus to follow my mouse, but also want it to
        automatically focus on a window that just raised itself to the
        top (until I move the mouse again).  Is there a way to do
        this?  I tried changing settings in the "Focus" tab of
        xfwm4-settings-tweaks, but it did no good. [note: 'tasklist' =
        'window buttons.']

Apparently, if you use 'focus follows mouse' there is no way to make a
restored window take focus automatically, as the above poster
discovered in the ensuing discussion.

I tried docking my floating toolbars, and that worked! If I restore a
document window with docked toolbars the window automatically gets
focus. Yay! Well, not so fast. I normally need the Formatting toolbar
(customized) and the Styles and Formatting toolbar. I can dock both of
them, but docking my Formatting toolbar to either side causes all of
the drop-downs to disappear, e.g., the style and font lists. But when
the Styles and Formatting toolbar is docked it still provides the list
of styles, so I don't know why the drop-downs on the formatting
toolbar go away - they are no wider than the style list. And I
discovered that I could remove things from the sidebar that I do not
want (Gallery, Navigator and Properties), but when I close the document
and re-open it the unwanted options reappear. Now, if I could just add
the Formatting toolbar to the sidebar and have it display the
drop-downs as well as the buttons I could live with a docked sidebar,
but alas, at this time you cannot add a toolbar to the sidebar. :(

Unrelated side comment: LO 5.4.3.2 added fonts that I don't want and a
whole bunch of templates. I was able to uninstall the fonts, but the
user cannot delete the templates. It also added dozens of styles that I
don't want, and they cannot be deleted either. You can hide styles, but
as soon as you close and re-open the document or even the styles and
formatting toolbar they are back.

On the LO website there was an announcement that you could get the
development version (in alpha development still - LibreOfficeDev 6.1)
and it would change the toolbars to a tabbed interface. I screwed up my
courage and installed it, and it was even worse than 5.4.3.2 - still
cannot add anything to the sidebar or permanently delete stuff that you
don't want. And the tabs can only appear at the top of the document,
just where I don't want them. Fortunately it installed itself alongside
5.4.3.2, so I can just ignore it.

So here I sit, LO is sort of working, but no focus or appearance
problems are solved, and it is doubtful that they can be solved, at
least not for some time.

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