stopping windows raising

users
#1

A very simple question, but one I can't find an answer to.

When I use libreoffice, it insists on raising its window to the top of
my display whenever it gets focus. Since I use a "focus follows mouse"
model in my window manager - and anyway, just because a window has
focus doesn't mean I want it on top - this is fantastically annoying.
How do I stop it doing this?
(Version 4.0.4.2 on Scientific Linux 6.5, in case it matters.)

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
I think no-one here knows. There are other places to ask;
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/community-support/

Sometimes it is a case of just being lucky and asking the question at the
right time to catch the right people. My response "bumps the thread" so
that it appears at the top of people's inbox again. I't sometimes worth
doing that if you've had no response after a day or few (but obviously
don't over-use it!).

I thought all the focus and "always on top" type stuff was all set-up in
the OS - and that would mean it'd behave the same across all different
apps, programs and suites. I know it's possible to set some individual
apps on a per-app basis but with a limited range of possibilities. Your's
sounds unusual!

So, hopefully you might get some more answers from this list but please go
ahead and repost elsewhere too. If you do get a good answer from elsewhere
please could you give us a link so we can check it out?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
I think no-one here knows. There are other places to ask;
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/community-support/

Obviously I looked there before asking - I can't find a magic keyword
to find anything in the documentation, and the ask libreoffice thing
appears to require setting up an OpenID server first (or making yet
another throwaway gmail account), which I can't be bothered to do.

I thought all the focus and "always on top" type stuff was all set-up in
the OS - and that would mean it'd behave the same across all different
apps, programs and suites. I know it's possible to set some individual

That's an overstatement, and depends what you mean by OS. In the
traditional Unix X setting, window placement and stacking of top-level
windows is the job of the window manager, and client programs don't
change their size or stacking order other than by explicit user
request (e.g. opening a new dialog window).
In this convention, window managers typically honour client raise
requests, because the client is assumed to have a good reason for
doing it. Whereas if focus changes, that's a window manager matter,
and it's up to the wm to raise or not raise the focussed window
according to the user's policy (not the OS's policy!).

So presumably the LO home-grown GUI toolkit is violating this policy,
and explicitly raising when it gets focus, because it was designed by
people from a different background (Windows?).

apps on a per-app basis but with a limited range of possibilities. Your's
sounds unusual!

Not at all. It's been the standard for 30 years or so.

So, hopefully you might get some more answers from this list but please go
ahead and repost elsewhere too. If you do get a good answer from elsewhere
please could you give us a link so we can check it out?

I fear the answer is almost certainly patch the source and
recompile! Which is too much work.