Need to click twice to focus on a pane when focus is originally from a different application (at least in OSX)

Often times, I use Obsidian with another application (side-by-side view with a PDF article or Word Doc or an ebook from a browser, etc.). When the focus is originally on a different application, I need to click twice on Obsidian if I want to change the focus to a particular pane in Obsidian. So e.g.,

  1. I have multiple panes in Obsidian (let’s say pane X and pane Y)
  2. I placed my focus on pane X in Obsidian
  3. Now I change my focus to Adobe Acrobat reader
  4. I click on pane Y of Obsidian

Expected result: pane Y is now in focus

Actual result: pane X is in focus and I need to click a second time to focus on pane Y.

I haven’t tried this on other OS.

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This has been confusing to me too at times. It seems like it’s probably due to some Electron bug and perhaps not solvable here but regardless it makes the app feel much less like a native app on macOS.

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I have same (or just similar?) problem on Windows.

I switch between Obsidian 0.9.17 and other apps frequently, taking notes in Obsidian in Edit mode. After each switch, I have to click in the edit pane, to be able to start writing again, as cursor/focus is lost.

Not sure if it could be an Electron bug (or perhaps Electron on Mac only) - I have used other note taking apps (at least 2) based on Electron on Windows, before switching to Obsidian, and don’t remember experiencing that issue there.

2 Likes

Same problem for me, under Windows 10, with latest Obsidian version (at this time = 0.10.11) … it is rather annoying and doesn’t allow to work only with keyboard.

I don’t have this problem for example with VSCode, so it’s probably not Electron related (except if Obsidian is using an old/buggy version of Electron, of course)

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Why has this bug been turned into a feature request? I can’t imagine the current behavior as intended or beneficial in any use case.

1 Like