Change window focus on drag-and-hover

Jan 30, '03 10:06:43AM

Contributed by: kerim

I was about to write a letter to Apple because I couldn't understand why drag-and-drop from one finder window to another doesn't change the "focus" bringing the other window into the foreground. I decided to experiment a bit and I found out it does! Perhaps everyone already knows this, but I was surprised. The trick? You have to hover for a second over the title bar, or any other part of the window border - then the background window will come to the foreground.

This is great if you already opened a multi-column view to a specific folder and then open a new window to find an item you wish to drag to that location. Often the new window will obscure the target folder - but hovering over the title-bar or border of the background window will bring it to the forground and allow you to drop the item right where you want it.

[Editor's note: This is a feature of spring loaded folders, and they must be enabled (Finder -> Preferences) if you want the focus to change on hover. However, if you prefer to leave spring loaded folders disabled (as I do - too many accidental mis-filings!), then you can still use the 'force' method to change focus -- just hit the space bar while the dragged object is over some portion of the window you wish to focus on.]

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