# Stealing Focus **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 9, 2009, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823 "2009-08-09T08:26:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/61 "2009-08-12T17:06:35Z")
> [@Red\_Skeezix](#): > > Apparently my intent was not clear. It’s not an affront to my honor if the user complains about how software works. It is that as soon as you begin developing a user interface, User A wants the app to steal the focus so that he can immediately determine what the appropriate action is. User B doesn’t want the focus stolen and is adamant about that. So which solution is correct? What usually happens is both and one is set as the default behavior on installation with the option to change that behavior through menus, wizards or what have you. > > Take the case of zone alarm. There is a nice setting called program control, which is by default set to “Programs must ask for Internet access and server rights.” I can change this setting as I as a user see fit for the workings of my computer. Huh, maybe if I read the manual/help files/other assorted documentation, or at least browsed it when the software did something unexpected, I would know how to enable or disable this feature. Expecting a user to attempt to refer to the manual when encountering a problem is obviously too much to ask. > > Also: an inflamed response to the use of stereotyping in the pit and bitching about usage of stereotypes? [Wiggam] Move along people, nothing to see here. [/Wiggam] Fine, instead of stealing all the focus, and popping into the middle of the screen because you MIGHT be involved in something important and getting interrupted sucks, you could pop a little warning into the lower corner like an EMAIL NOTIFICATION ALREADY DOES, nonintrusive, and it stays there until you deal with it. Last job, I had a twitchy program we had to work with, and anything that took focus while trying to fill in the damned fields would blank out the page all the way back to the top, making you have to start all over again once you dealt with whatever popped up. ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/62 "2009-08-12T21:45:35Z")
While resembling the description of programmers in at least two of four dimensions, and admitting that I’ve been a systems administrator for the past nearly 20 years, I’ve ranted the similar rant privately in front of my screen many times. I don’t do it publicly since 9.9 out 10 people would have no idea what I was ranting about. Focus stealing is, minimally, annoying and, potentially, dangerous. This message brought to you by the society to promote run on sentences, abuse commas, and the letter “Q”. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/63 "2009-08-12T21:58:26Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Last job, I had a twitchy program we had to work with, and anything that took focus while trying to fill in the damned fields would blank out the page all the way back to the top, making you have to start all over again once you dealt with whatever popped up. Ah. The practice of clearing all fields when the form gets focus. That way, you don’t have to click a “Clear All” button. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/64 "2009-08-12T22:00:00Z")
I’m a software developer, and I’ll have you know my moral development is at _least_ at the level of a badger’s. Programs steal focus because their designers were dipshits or ignorant and their programmers were either browbeaten, overly obedient, or also dipshits. There is NO REASON for a program to grab the focus and jam it onto some input control so you can enter something unintentionall (and thus make the form disappear unread). NO REASON. Outlook does this to me all the time with scheduled notifications and I HATE IT. Now, this isn’t saying that there is no reason to slap a topmost popup over your screen and cover up what you were working on. There are lots of potential reasons to do that. But there is NO reason to take the focus away too. It’s quite simple to make a window keep itself on top of everything without it stealing focus. The coders were dipshits. That is that. Presuming my bosses didn’t make me (I’m overly obedient), I would _never_ do such a thing. It’s sheer idiocy. (Now, I _did_ just yesterday decide to trap the mouse cursor in a tiny little box and essentially deprive you of the use of your computer, potentially for hours at a time. But that’s completely different.) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/65 "2009-08-13T02:08:16Z")
All my desktop icons are on my task bar. My desktop is nornally just completely black. A while back, before my wife got her computer, I did a Print Screen of Google, and used that for my desktop. It was fun watching my wife furiously clicking “buttons” that weren’t really there, like the X button, for closing the screen. It was a riot — as when she finally realized what was going on, she began to blast me with 1920s style death rays eminating from her eyeballs. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/66 "2009-08-14T00:24:41Z")
I just wanted to say that, pretty much as a result of this thread, I’ve ordered all developers in our shop to rewrite our apps that steal focus. We do have one or two, like a propriety IM program, for example. If I’m typing here, and that window opens, my sentence continues in it. Therefore, I’ve ordered that instead of stealing focus, that a user be notified of an incoming IM by a pleasant audible sound, like a quiet ding, and a flashing notification on the task bar. (That latter is necessary in case someone is away from his desk; then, upon his return, he will know that he has an IM.) I was practically cheered by the guys, who completely agreed with me. (And believe me, they express themselves whenever they disagree.) So thanks to the OP and to other contributors who made me aware of this issue. I mean, I knew about it, and I knew it sucked, but it just never dawned on me that I could do anything about it. I could, and I did. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/67 "2009-08-14T01:04:02Z")
Hooray! One small step towards a better world! ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/68 "2009-08-14T01:17:40Z")
🙂 Thanks, Indistinguishable! (Means a lot, coming from you.) ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823/69 "2009-08-14T02:44:16Z")
> [@LeeshaJoy](#): > > Y’know, I’ve been using Macs since I was five years old and I can’t recall _ever_ running into a program that stole keyboard focus like that. Just sayin’. Is it true that Macs don’t have this problem? I always assumed not, but the last time this topic came up even Mac people were complaining about the issue and that surprised me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-focus/505823.md?page=3)