How do I set "focus follows mouse" in Ubuntu-Mate 20.04LTS?

user296662

1/24/23, 10:53 PM

I read several past entries about "focus follows mouse" in these pages, but I could not find an answer that helped me. Many answers are for older versions, and others are for Ubuntu flavors other than Mate. These previous answers list tools and programs to do this which I could not find in Ubuntu-Mate menus.

In had expected to be able to do this using Mate Tweak, but it does not even mention mouse focus one way or another.

Please help.

0 + 0

mouse

focus

mate

ubuntu-mate

20.04

Score:1

Ubuntu

N0rbert

1/25/23, 6:38 AM

On Ubuntu MATE this option is controlled by Window Preferences MATE Control Center applet.
You can launch it using GUI or mate-window-properties command.

The option is named Select windows when the mouse moves over them:

You may also want to use two other checkboxes to get needed behavior (Unselect windows when the mouse leaves them and Raise selected windows after an interval).

The following value combinations exist:

Select…	Unselect…	Raise…	Resulting focus mode	Resulting auto-raise
`[ ]`	disabled	disabled	click	false
`[v]`	`[ ]`	`[ ]`	sloppy	false
`[v]`	`[v]`	`[ ]`	mouse	false
`[v]`	`[ ]`	`[v]`	sloppy	true
`[v]`	`[v]`	`[v]`	mouse	true

For details about terminology check the related mate-desktop/marco/doc/how-to-get-focus-right.txt documentation.

In short:

Focus method Invariant

click The window on top is focused

sloppy If the mouse is in a window, then it is focused; if the mouse is not in a window, then the most recently used window is focused.

mouse If the mouse is in a non-DESKTOP window, then it is focused; otherwise, the designated "no_focus_window" is focused

Focus method	Invariant
click	The window on top is focused
sloppy	If the mouse is in a window, then it is focused; if the mouse is not in a window, then the most recently used window is focused.
mouse	If the mouse is in a non-DESKTOP window, then it is focused; otherwise, the designated "no_focus_window" is focused

References:

0 + 0

user296662

1/25/23, 1:59 PM

I thank you very much. This worked.

N0rbert

1/25/23, 2:28 PM

Great, so you can accept this answer by using grey checkmark at the left of answer.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How do I set "focus follows mouse" in Ubuntu-Mate 20.04LTS?

TH: ฉันจะตั้งค่า "โฟกัสตามเมาส์" ใน Ubuntu-Mate 20.04LTS ได้อย่างไร

RO: Cum setez „focalizarea urmează mouse-ul” în Ubuntu-Mate 20.04LTS?

RU: Как установить «фокус следует за мышью» в Ubuntu-Mate 20.04LTS?

VI: Làm cách nào để đặt "tiêu điểm theo chuột" trong Ubuntu-Mate 20.04LTS?

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.