Jul 29, 2011 Keep applications from stealing focus when opening in OS X. By default, OS X applications will launch in front of others, and thereby steal window focus. Window On Top Portable can be used to make any application topmost that is to keep it above all other windows. This functionality is identical to the 'Always on Top' setting found in some programs. Force keeping app window on top - Mac OS X. Ask Question Asked 6 years, 2 months ago. Is there any alive software or any simple 'handy' way to force keeping app window on top over others (including fullscreen apps). The ability to set the window level remains. Show the code you use that previously worked and what behaviour/errors you now. The osascript trick Arnaud P could have problems, if there is more than one process with the application title ‘Python’; additionally, it will not work for Python 3 processes (needs to be called ‘Python3’ then. However, I found another trick that can solve the problem by using the process id. Import os script = 'tell application 'System Events' to set frontmost of the first process. Sep 04, 2008 imac, Mac OS X (10.5.2) Posted on Aug 25, 2008 11:14 AM Reply I have this question too ( 119 ) I have this question too Me too (119) Me too.
The full-screen mode on many native Mac applications is great. It takes full advantage of most Mac Retina displays, and it gives you the maximum working space. It also diminishes distractions by hiding the Dock and the status bar. If this is a look you like, you can follow the steps below to make sure some applications always open in full-screen mode on your Mac.
Step 1: Enabling Resume
Macs actually have a featured called “Resume” that allows apps to save their state on close. When reopened, the application will launch itself in the same state. This means reopening any documents you had open and placing windows in the same location as they were on close. This will also capture window settings like full screen mode settings and other options.
Make sure the box next to “Close windows when quitting an app” is unchecked. This will allow Resume to function, permitting the app to reload its previous status.
Step 2: Configuring Apps to Open in Full Screen Mode
Once that’s set, you can set up the apps that you’d like to have open in full screen mode. For example, if you want to have Safari in full screen, you would do the following.
1. Open Safari.
2. Set Safari’s window to full screen by clicking the green button in the upper-left of the window.
3. Quit Safari without closing the window you just set to full screen mode. It’s very important that you don’t close the application window before quitting the app. You can quit an app from the menu bar, by right-clicking on the app’s Dock icon, or by pressing Command+Q.
When you reopen Safari, it should still be in full-screen mode. If you want other applications to also open in full-screen mode, you’ll need to open those applications separately and follow the same steps there.
This setting will only hold for Mac apps that open in Full Screen mode, not simply apps that make their windows larger. For example, Photoshop doesn’t have a full screen mode: instead, it makes the window take up the available monitor space. Safari, on the other hand, has a true Full Screen mode, hiding the menu bar and creating its own Space for the application to occupy. You can tell the difference by looking at the green button’s icon. If it has two arrows, as above, that’s a true Full Screen app. If it has a plus symbol (+), that’s just maximizing the app’s size.
You’ll also want to adjust how to quit applications. If you close windows before quitting an application, then those windows will not be saved. Some users, especially those that migrated from Windows, may have developed the habit of closing application windows before quitting the application. Make sure you stop doing this.
Step 3: Opening Apps at Startup with Login Services
You can also launch applications at login so that they’ll be full screen and ready for you when you open your Mac. Of course, you may also have to navigate out of the windows if your last application opened in full-screen mode. Give it a try and see how it works for you. If it imposes a lengthy startup time on your Mac, you may want to limit the number of apps starting at launch.
1. Open System Preferences.
2. Select the “Users & Groups” pane.
3. Click the “Login Items” tab.
4. Click the “+” button at the bottom of the list of applications.
5. Select the application you wish to have launched at startup.
Step 4: Quitting Correctly
For these changes to actually matter, you’ll want to make sure that you’re shutting down your Mac and closing your applications correctly.
You also have the option to reopen all the applications you have open at the time you shut down your Mac or log out. At the shutdown confirmation window, be sure to check the box that says “Reopen windows when logging back in” before clicking Shut Down or Log Out.
When quitting apps, don’t close the application’s windows before quitting. Leave the windows open, then quit the application via your preferred method. When you reopen the application, it will open with the same window state. This means that full screen mode will be engaged. It will also open the documents that were open previously, allowing you to quickly pick up where you left off.
Also: Setting Up Spaces for Multi-Monitor Users
In addition to the steps above, you’ll also want to optimize your workspace for full screen applications. If you have more than one monitor, that means you’ll need to set up separate Spaces for each monitor. Otherwise, you’ll end up blacking out the other monitor when you set an application to Full Screen, which probably won’t improve your productivity.
1. Open System Preferences.
Always Show App Below Others Mac Back Window Keep Closing
2. Choose “Mission Control” from the top row.
3. Check the box next to “Displays have separate Spaces.”
This won’t have any affect if you don’t have more than one monitor. But for dual monitor users, it will prevent you from blacking out your second screen when you set an application to full screen mode. Instead, you’ll be able to continue working with other apps on the adjacent monitor or monitors.
Setting Each App
The first setting, regarding closing windows when quitting apps, will affect every application on your Mac. However, it won’t automatically make every app open in full-screen mode. You’ll need to set that up individually within each app. Other apps will, however, open in the last state you left them in. If you don’t like this behavior, you can close windows before quitting certain apps. This will allow you to set some applications to open in full screen mode as you desire, rather than applying a global system preference.
You might also like the following macOS tips:
Manage the Apps Using Your Network Connection on macOSFour Ways to Force Quit Mac ApplicationsGreat Free Backup Apps for macOS
Always keep an application open | 22 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
![]() Always Show App Below Others Mac Back Window Keep Falling
This is great. Thanks for posting. Now would there be a way to keep the application hidden?
Always Show App Below Others Mac Back Window Keeps
There is, already. Read this: http://www.cocoadev.com/index.pl?LSUIElement
![]()
Thanks for the suggestion. This is quite technical. I am in no way a developer and got lost in the instruction. I was hoping for a simple solution like the one presented in this hint. I don't mind having the icon showing the application open in the dock but would like to hide the window.
Maybe this explanation can help, if you want to hide dock icon. (From here: http://growl.info/documentation/hardwaregrowler.php)
Disabling the dock icon: Because HG doesn't really have any user-interaction features, you may follow these steps to disable the dock icon. Navigate to wherever you placed HG and right-click on it and select 'Show Package Contents.' Open up contents and then right-click Info.plist. Highlight 'Open With' and select TextEdit from the list (If TextEdit is not in the list, choose 'Other...' and navigate to TextEdit and click 'Open'). Paste the following just after <dict>: <key>LSUIElement</key> <true/>
Not directly through launchd; but then again, I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, so maybe I'm misunderstanding the question. what app are you talking about, and what do you want hidden?
I remotely connect to my computer at home with an application called TeamViewer. When TW launches it opens a window which provide login information. If you close that window, TW quits. You can't keep the application open without the window.
There are other members of the family who use this computer. They are sometimes distracted and close the window and with it, the application. Your hint comes very handy to prevent this. However, to prevent confusion it would be better if the window would hide when the application opens. You can do this when you add an application in the Login Items.
Badly designed port of a windows app. You should write the developers and tell them that this is un-Mac-like behavior and they should fix it.
That being said, this is not (IMO) how you should approach this issue. It would be better for you to create a second user account just for work and enable fast user switching. This way you have a handy menu that lets you switch between accounts - you can log into your work account, start the application, then switch to the other account and let your family have at it: the work account and the TW app will run in the some strange background dimension where no one can see it. Just tell your family not to go into your work account on pain of eternal grounding. (you could password the account if you really wanted to, but it would add the extra stop of entering the password when you wanted access). In fact, you could set up individual accounts for each of your family members so that they could all do their stuff without it mixing in with everyone else's stuff. You'd want to max out your machine's RAM (fast user switching keeps each logged-in account active, which hogs memory).
'you could password the account if you really wanted to' You'd be surprised. I'm always seeing people over in the forums who share their user accounts with friends, college roommates, random acquaintances. People, I swear…
Oh my goodness. Are you seriously suggesting that users don't apply a password by default? This isn't 1980, you know... Always Show App Below Others Mac Back Window Keep Popping
However, If you're already sharing a user account with your family (and I assume this is a desktop that doesn't travel out of the house where other people could get physical access), then putting a password on your work account would just be to keep your kids/spouse out of it - it wouldn't really be needed for security reasons (unless you're worried about someone breaking into your house late at night so they could update their facebook page).
That being said, if you're going to have an account with no password, do not under any circumstances make it an administrator account or put it on the sudoers list. That would just be dumb.
Actually, this is a common behavior for applications that won't open more than one window at a time. For instance, Apple's own iPhoto, System Preferences, Dictionary and Calculator will quit on closing the window.
I appreciate your suggestions. I am already using multiple accounts on the computer but I also do remote support for extended family and friends and would like to keep it as simple as possible. A window auto-hide at launch would be just perfect in most cases.
Thanks for the suggestion. This is quite technical. I am in no way a developer and got lost in the instruction. I was hoping for a simple solution like the one presented in this hint. I don't mind having the icon showing the application open in the dock but would like to hide the window.
Google the system preferences app Do Something When - I think you can set that up to automatically run a script to hide the app when it's launched.
I installed this Preference Pane. You can set it to open a document or an app when an app is launched (no option to run a script as such). I am not familiar with applescripts but managed to create an app with Automator that hides the window after launching TeamViewer. It does what I wanted to do. I am an happy camper now! Thanks tedw and everybody else for the kind and appreciated inputs.
I thought keeping and hiding an app is easier to carry out with an AppleScript app. An icon more in your Dock, though.
Doesn't this LaunchAgent prevent you from logging out? Every time you try to log out, Stickies relaunches and blocks the logout.
No, it shouldn't. launchd has a special procedure for logout and shutdown, in which it disables launchd jobs (for precisely this reason, I think - the KeepAlive key is commonly used for certain kinds of background tasks).
I rebooted several times to test this claim and the shut down was cancelled the first time only. I don't know why it happened only the first time.
Maybe you had 'sudo launchctl load [...]' by mistake?
You lost me here. All I did is implementing the steps as instructed and did not change anything in between reboots.
This is pretty cool, Thanks! It works fine on my 10.5 system, but while it's loaded on 10.4, it doesn't seem to function. Any quick suggestions? Thanks again!
the KeepAlive key was introduced in 10.5. for 10.4, you could try replacing KeepAlive/true with OnDemand/false. Unfortunately I don't have a 10.4 partition to test this on
You 'da MAN! I just made this change on my 10.4 system and it's working!
Thank you!! Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2020
Categories |