Like if I got libreoffice open and active on the left of my screen and safari open on the right then go from my active window being libreoffice to now safari where the browser is on lemmy.world and I go and click the search icon it doesn’t automatically recognize that I hit the search icon or any post on a single click. Instead it activates that window requiring me to click again. Essentially turning it into a two part process of double clicking or alt + Command then click. Same for if I go to YouTube.com then go to another opened program then move the cursor over to click the search input field for the first time or click a video.
But, then if I go from an active window like LibreOffice straight to the address bar that’s just one click required of me which made it apparent this is a program issue/decision, since some programs don’t require that click to focus then click again to recognize user inputs but instead initiates them the first time.
Would be nice if this type of behavior could be adjusted system wide, since when it happens it makes things feel unresponsive with actions not being accept the first time. I’m guessing this might be a remnant of when side by side or multiple monitor multitasking wasn’t as widespread, and more switching between programs that are taking the entire focus of the screen?
Funny, I had to use windows for the first time in a while for work recently and the first thing that annoyed me was clicking a window to make it the active one actually pressed the button too, so now I have to aim and be extra careful when putting a window in the forefront that I don’t click anything I don’t want to. It’s like a minefield! I mostly “overlap” my windows so I can see pieces of them all at once and rarely use things side-by-side, so I can see your frustration and why it works for my flow. I think the only solution for you is to make your side-by-side windows full screen so they are on the same z level