Selecting a Window for Input

Before a window can receive input or other window management functions, you must select a window for input focus. To avoid ambiguity, only one window can be selected at a time. This window is said to be the active window.

When a window is active, the color or shade of the window frame changes. See Customizing the Motif Window Manager for details on how you can choose the color or shading for active and inactive windows.

The input focus policy determines how a window is selected. The window manager supports both an explicit focus policy and an implicit focus policy.

The implicit focus policy is also known as the pointer focus policy. The default input focus policy is explicit, which means that you must click Button 1 on the window frame or press to change the input focus from one window to another.

Pointer input focus policy causes mwm to change the input focus to match the pointer's position; no other actions are required. Thus, the window that contains the pointer always has the input focus. You can specify this input focus policy by modifying the defaults in the X configuration file. (See Setting input focus policy for further information.)

The easiest way to select a window for input is to move the mouse so that the pointer rests within the frame of the window you want to use.

If an explicit focus policy is in effect, you also need to click Button 1. With explicit focus policy, only the window selected for keyboard focus receives keyboard input, regardless of where the pointer is located.

If you are using the explicit focus policy, you can also move the input focus using the keyboard. Pressing moves the input focus to the next window in the window stack; pressing moves the input focus to the previous window.