Are you fed up with clicking every time you want to switch windows while multitasking? Thankfully, now you can say goodbye to manual clicking and effortlessly focus on the window under your cursor with the help of a simple app. Read on to find out more!
Coding on a small laptop screen can be a real drag, especially when you’re juggling a tutorial, documentation, and your code editor. I recently hooked up an external monitor to my Mac to give myself more space, but I quickly ran into a new annoyance.
Every time I wanted to interact with a window on my second monitor, I had to click on it to bring it into focus before I could do anything.
With the average computer user clicking thousands of times a day, this constant clicking was adding up fast. It was frustrating and counterproductive to the whole point of having a second monitor!
So, I did some digging and found the perfect solution: a free app called Auto Raise. Its working principle is simple: focus-follows-mouse. It is available on Github, where you can download the installation file for free.
Basically, it automatically brings the window under your mouse cursor to the front, instantly giving it focus.
This is what I mean:
In this video, I am not clicking on any of the windows. They are being focused and brought to the front automatically, solely based on the position of the cursor. (You can even choose to have windows gain focus without being raised.)
Also read: How to Convert a Video to Multiple Resolutions in 1 Click
You can easily adjust the delay for focusing or raising a window, and the app has a handy menu bar icon for quick access and toggling. Even better, you can customize Auto Raise to ignore certain apps, prevent specific apps from losing focus, or set up a hotkey to enable or disable it on the fly.
It’s a remarkably stable and reliable app and does exactly what it says.
Alternatives to AutoRaise
I came across another app called AutoFocus, which promises even more features, but it was buggy in my experience. It also appears to be abandoned by the developer.
Auto Raise does everything I need with excellent customization and it’s completely free – so, I’m not looking anywhere else.
Also read: How to Access Files Without Exiting Full Screen on Mac
Wrap up
If you’re a fellow multi-monitor user or juggle between apps, I hope this helps make your life a little smoother. If so, please spread the word on social media!
Got questions? Hit me up on Twitter (X).
Thanks for reading! ✌️