Cmd key sends mouse click to background window

[eos]

Something I discovered today by accident. I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I guess not …

Experienced Mac users will know that one of the many useful things the Cmd key (fka Apple key)

will let you do is moving windows in the background, meaning that if you press and hold the Cmd key

you can move a background window without it becoming the front window.

So I used this technique today in FMA 12, or more to the point, I tried, but missed my mark and clicked

on a button in the background window. Imagine my surprise when the button was triggered, but the windows

kept their background / front positions! You can even click on a popup menu and make a selection in the

background, while remaining in your original window. All keyboard input, on the other hand, goes to the front window.

(btw, none of the involved windows was defined as modal or floating.)

I'm not sure this has many useful applications, but should you want to see some information in a large

background window for which you need e.g. switch a layout or tab and still would like to see the data in

your smaller front window, this method works faster and is more comfortable than painstakingly

arranging your windows “just so”. (Be aware that the Cmd key actually IS pressed and any scripts

which check for modifier key codes will recognize it.)

IMO this doesn't merit an extensive survey, but some quick checks in Snow Leopard showed that the technique

does NOT work with FMA 11 or in Word for Mac 2011, but DOES work in Numbers and Pages from iWork 2009,

and also in the OS X Finder (both Snow Leopard and Lion).

[Vaughan]

Try this: in a test file, set up a looping script:

Loop

Pause 3 sec

Exit Loop If [ get( activeModifierKeys ) > 0 ]

End Loop

Beep

Run the script. Put FMP into the background and open another program (say Word). Press the shift key. :D