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Every time I point my mouse over a frame, it gets focus for its specific actions and hotkeys. But, when using a multi-monitor setup which opens different windows, I can't get them focused unless I click anywhere in the interface or hit the window bar. This occurs on Windows and Mac OS X.

This is annoying because I have to click first and then do a PAN or ORBIT command, for example.

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  • $\begingroup$ This would seem to be an OS level problem rather than one specific to Blender IMO. It varies for all of them. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Aug 6, 2013 at 1:01

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This is an issue with the window managers in Windows and MacOS. There's a chance that this might be addressable in Blender's source, but my guess is that it's a non-trivial problem. A work-around would be to try to force Windows or MacOS to use a behavior common in Linux window managers called "focus follows mouse", or "sloppy focus".

Unfortunately, this is not default behavior in either of those systems. In Windows, you can do it manually by tweaking the UserPreferenceMask in the registry. In Mac OS, it's complicated by the fact that you have the persistent menu bar at the top... but you should be able to get focus follows mouse using a utility like Zooom/2.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm almost sure that Blender could handle it by itself. I have tested this issue in some other softwares, like Cinema 4D, for example. Even if the window is not focused (can see in the grayed top bar), the hotkeys works like a charm and the window remain unfocused :/ $\endgroup$
    – user1050
    Aug 5, 2013 at 19:36
  • $\begingroup$ My mistake: for other softwares tested, the windows get focused (only) when a hotkey is pressed. $\endgroup$
    – user1050
    Aug 5, 2013 at 19:44
  • $\begingroup$ Although I believe in Windows, a frame cannot detect which app a mouse is in, there are still a few approaches to it. If the mouse is not in the active frame when a hotkey is received, it can notify all other frames to check. Alternately, it can centrally track the geometry of all Blender frames and interpolate if an owned frame contains the mouse. The latter is actually harder due to overlap. Either way, not painless to implement. Then is the issue that this is adding OS code, and doesn't fix Mac. $\endgroup$
    – shannon
    Dec 31, 2014 at 12:28
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This workaround works for me quite well in Windows - there is a built-in option to activate a window by mouse hover. It is placed in Ease of Access Center -> Make the mouse easier to use -> Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse.

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