Pane selection can cause odd focus changes when same document is in multiple windows.

[David.P]

Hello all,

please, can this be worked on?

The issue is extremely irritating and is always present as soon as you start working with two windows of the same document.

I have found that if the windows are not tabbed but displayed independently, there is a problem when the dialog overlaps the window to which it is linked. Specifically, the [...] dialog hides behind the target window [...].

I can confirm this, and it also happens with other dialogs, for example with the properties toolbar and even with whole panes such as for example the thumbnail pane (when it is undocked).

If multiple independent windows [not tabs] are present, then floating toolbars or panes that belong to the window in the background are erroneously brought to the foreground (and vice versa).

In other words, most or all floating panes and toolbars that are visible at any given time belong to the window in the background, instead of showing information, for example thumbnails or formatting, etc. of the window that is in the foreground.

Then, as soon as you click in the thumbnails pane or on the floating properties toolbar, for example, the background window pops into the foreground and covers up the window that you were actually working on.

Maybe it helps if we set the thread to "not solved" or if we move the present issue into a new thread?

Thanks very much for looking into this.

Best regards
David.P

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, David.P

I am afraid that I cannot say I am able to reproduce this issue on my end... While the initial split does place any newly extracted windows in rather close proximity to one another, leading to the possibility of some confusion, I have just gone through testing every pane we offer, while swapping between 3 overlapping windows of the software, all showing the same file, with the panes in nearly the same position (so I can witness the change in focus).

At no point did the wrong panes come into the foreground, nor did clicking on any of the links switch my focus to a different window in the software. The only exception to this, was the "search" pane, which only a single instance can exist of, per document, so it was not possible to open it on the second or third window after it was opened on the first. Even with that pane, closing the first, and then opening a new copy in the desired window allowed it to work for navigation in that window as intended.

Could I ask for a video of you experiencing this issue? Perhaps there is something I have done wrong in my tests...

Kind regards,

[David.P]

Thank you very much, Daniel, for looking into this so quickly.

Now, when I try to actively reproduce the issue, it also doesn't occur -- both with my specific settings, and after completely resetting the program settings to default. There must be some additional condition that triggers the issue.

I will continue monitoring and will report back as soon as I have new findings regarding the conditions that cause the issue to appear.

Best regards,
David

Edit: I just could partially reproduce the issue, by switching about two times between the two windows and then pressing the hotkey for the properties toolbar (which is floating in my case).

About every second time when pressing the hotkey for the properties toolbar, the window that is in the background jumps to the foreground.

This happens even if I make sure to click somewhere into the foreground window in order to actually give it focus, and then press the hotkey for the properties toolbar.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, David.P

Aha! I did manage to reproduce it finally. It seems that it happens specifically when the Editor window focus changes, but the selected item was the pane specifically (in your current window, while the secondary window can NOT have the pane selected).
If the pane of the "First" window is selected, then you alt+tab twice, to return to the First window, using the open/close shortcuts for that same pane, will affect the "Second" windows pane, instead of the First windows pane as expected.

I expect your mention of clicking is somehow related, likely clicking somewhere that does not change the focus explicitly to the document itself, but only to the window, just as Alt+Tab would do.

As an aside, I will split this out into its own topic now that we have determined it is a different issue.

RT#7159: Bug: panes with multi-window-document oddities

Kind regards,

[David.P]

Thanks, Dan, for reproducing and describing the issue from your end. And for setting up this new thread.

I will try to reproduce and provide a description for the case where other panes of dual windows, like floating thumbnail panes, exhibit the behavior described further above.

Just to add to my previous description: there, I actually clicked on the document page itself to make sure it is in front and has focus, before hitting that key for show/hiding the Properties toolbar.

It makes no difference whether you switch between the two windows via the Alt-Tab key combination or via the taskbar buttons.

Best Regards
David

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, David.P

Hmmm, very odd indeed. Thank you for that, I will keep fiddling with this and see what else I can spot. Let me know if you find any other oddities along the way.

Kind regards,