How to stop Microsoft Office apps ignoring click on unfocused window

Microsoft Office applications on Windows behave like Mac OS - if a window does not have input focus, then clicking one of its buttons only focuses the window and you have to click again to activate the button (or other control).

This would be annoying enough if it was consistent with other apps, but it's not even consistent with other Microsoft apps like Explorer.

This post "First mouse click sets focus but is otherwise ignored" describes the problem well but the moderator didn't get it, and it has been ignored.

This one "Windows requires a click to activate a window before a second click will select a button. How can I change this?" was about developing code rather than general user configuration.

One workaround is to enable "Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse" from the Control Panel, but that is not to everyone's taste and changes the behaviour of the whole desktop rather than just fixing the broken apps.

Is there a way to stop Office apps ignoring click on unfocussed window without changing the behaviour of the whole desktop?

Denis Howe

Posted 2012-10-03T13:10:02.490

Reputation: 309

I'd love to see a solution for this as well. Unfortunately, the "solution" that works great for me at home (using LibreOffice instead of MS) ins't an option at work. – Amos M. Carpenter – 2015-03-25T01:44:29.907

1I was about to ask this question, too. Really strange that no one knows an answer. Maybe asking on some Office forum? – Uwe Keim – 2013-07-21T19:57:59.790

Odd. I never noticed this disparity, but it indeed doesn't make sense. No matter what your preference, at least within Microsoft stuff it should be consistent, in one way or the other. Good question. – Ariane – 2013-08-20T17:49:08.123

What flavor of Office are you using? – Doktoro Reichard – 2013-08-21T05:44:41.513

I'm using Office 2010 on Windows 7 but I think it's always been like that. – Denis Howe – 2013-08-21T19:31:51.513

In some situations, the Office team went to great lengths to make Office swallow clicks and not respond to them: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2006/01/26/517851.aspx

– TessellatingHeckler – 2013-08-22T15:07:53.703

5The article posted by @TessellatingHeckler makes it clear that the real problem is the ribbon. They are hacking the focus model to support this new (new != better) context-oriented menuing system. I think this supports the notion that static toolbars and dropdown menus contribute to a smoother workflow. I have used Office for many years and still find myself searching through the ribbon to find something the used to be easily accessible via a dropdown or toolbar. More importantly, and more on-topic, the double-click-focus issue, when switching from another app, is maddening. – Ryan Griggs – 2014-02-06T20:23:39.710

Answers

I'm pretty sure that the handling of mouse click activation is up to the application and is not configurable at a system wide level.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hae1hxka.aspx

david25272

Posted 2012-10-03T13:10:02.490

Reputation: 377

@DenisHowe : I would guess that AutoHotkey may be able to do that. – TOOGAM – 2017-01-04T03:55:53.480

3Clearly it's up to the application as Office does it differently from other apps. I don't want to change anything system-wide, I want to fix Office.

If it's impossible to fix Office, I would consider an app that watched for mouse clicks over inactive windows and activated them before they received the click. Possible? – Denis Howe – 2014-02-07T13:01:15.943

This may not be quite what you are after, but it seems to work for me.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/switch-windows-by-hovering-the-mouse-over-a-window-in-windows-vista/

It switches focus to the window the mouse is currently over. For Office, this is effectively that 'first click' to gain focus. The (possibly unfortunate) side effect is that anything you hover over comes to the front - just like you clicked on it.

Jimbo

Posted 2012-10-03T13:10:02.490

Reputation: 1

Welcome to Super User. External links can break or be unavailable, in which case your answer would not be useful. Please include the essential information within your answer and use the link for attribution and further reading. Thanks. – fixer1234 – 2017-01-04T04:09:12.423