Hi James, I understand your frustration with this, and we are definitely not alone in our frustration. I have never found a real solution though. Growl provides a system-wide way to notify the user that something has happened without getting in the way. Perhaps use spaces and let the running app run in its own space whilst working on another project or app in another space.
There is a thread here at Ars Techina. Dear Apple: Stop letting apps steal focus http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1116002 Sent from Ronni's iPad Sent from Ronni's iPad On 13/09/2010, at 7:26 PM, James Devenish <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi all, > > If I have any complaint about Mac OS X, it is there severe user > interface floor whereby you can be happily typing or clicking in an > application (which is called the "foreground"), and then a 2nd > application from the background will pop up in front of everything > with some kind of question or text entry request, and your keystrokes > and mouseclicks will be errantly misdirected in dangerous ways. I > often lose my work in addition to losing my concentration. This > problem has existed since Tiger, at least. But in the past, > Application switching took about a second, so I was always able to > stop typing before too much damaged was caused. But these days, with > fast computers and fast Snow Leopard, the applications switch around > in the blink of an eye, and by sheer momentum I am overwriting, > misclicking and misentering data in errant places. Complete > productivity killer. Is there was way to fix this? If no one knows, I > will file a bug report with Apple. But I'm sure someone has already > done this and been ignored... > > James > > > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]> > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]>
