I frequently have to do some tedious comparison work looking at two folders side by side in different finder windows to try and make them mirror one another. In this process I like to have my folder in list view and to open folder trees using the arrow buttons to expand/collapse a directory tree rather than double clicking and opening a folder.
Often I have to switch active finder windows in this process and click on a folder in the inactive window so I can expand or collapse it. Clicking on a folder in the inactive window once makes it that window active but doesn't select the folder, I can deal with this, and in most situations that's a good idea but infuriatingly, clicking once again on the folder I want is interpreted as a double click which then opens the folder. I can work around this by either waiting at least 1-1.5 seconds between clicks or clicking elsewhere on the inactive window first and then moving the cursor down to where I want it with mouse or arrow keys but this is far from ideal. The task I'm trying to do is extraordinarily tedious and painstaking and these little annoyances waste a lot of time and slowly build up to a blinding rage. Is there no way to make it so it doesn't do this? Frankly I think it's a pretty terrible idea but maybe it's just because I have this specific activity in mind that perhaps most people don't have to do on their macs.
To double click a folder in order to deliberately open it rather than just expand it requires me to double click in such a way that it would be hard to accidentally do it, the double click speed is set to a normal amount that is workable and fine, it's only in switching from active and inactive windows that this changes and the time allowed between clicks before they're registered as separate clicks is lengthened considerably. I can see maybe this is done so that if you specifically wanted to open a folder in a currently inactive window rather than expand it, there'd have to be 3 clicks rather than 2 unless unless the double click speed is adjusted the way that it currently is and that I've described, but I basically never want to do that and would rather just have to click 3 times on those rare occasions and have the double click speed remain unaffected.
I hope I've explained this properly, it's a minor annoyance that gradually becomes infuriating.
EDIT: Okay just realised I haven't described this properly in fact my double click speed is unaffected by whether or not a window is active or inactive it's just that the initial click for making the window active is considered one of two clicks for selecting the folder but doesn't highlight it blue so that it doesn't SEEM like it is selected. The reason it opens isn't because there's a slower double click speed suddenly like I described it's just that I don't realise that I've already technically clicked a folder once already so when I click it again it's now a second click and is registered as a double click. I'd still like to know how to stop this. I don't want to adjust my double click speed because I like it as it is, I just want when I click on a folder in an inactive window for that folder to either: 1. be selected and highlighted the same way clicking once would do in an active window OR 2. not be selected at all requiring me to click once more but this second click would be registered as the first as the initial click was only for making the folder active.
Often I have to switch active finder windows in this process and click on a folder in the inactive window so I can expand or collapse it. Clicking on a folder in the inactive window once makes it that window active but doesn't select the folder, I can deal with this, and in most situations that's a good idea but infuriatingly, clicking once again on the folder I want is interpreted as a double click which then opens the folder. I can work around this by either waiting at least 1-1.5 seconds between clicks or clicking elsewhere on the inactive window first and then moving the cursor down to where I want it with mouse or arrow keys but this is far from ideal. The task I'm trying to do is extraordinarily tedious and painstaking and these little annoyances waste a lot of time and slowly build up to a blinding rage. Is there no way to make it so it doesn't do this? Frankly I think it's a pretty terrible idea but maybe it's just because I have this specific activity in mind that perhaps most people don't have to do on their macs.
To double click a folder in order to deliberately open it rather than just expand it requires me to double click in such a way that it would be hard to accidentally do it, the double click speed is set to a normal amount that is workable and fine, it's only in switching from active and inactive windows that this changes and the time allowed between clicks before they're registered as separate clicks is lengthened considerably. I can see maybe this is done so that if you specifically wanted to open a folder in a currently inactive window rather than expand it, there'd have to be 3 clicks rather than 2 unless unless the double click speed is adjusted the way that it currently is and that I've described, but I basically never want to do that and would rather just have to click 3 times on those rare occasions and have the double click speed remain unaffected.
I hope I've explained this properly, it's a minor annoyance that gradually becomes infuriating.
EDIT: Okay just realised I haven't described this properly in fact my double click speed is unaffected by whether or not a window is active or inactive it's just that the initial click for making the window active is considered one of two clicks for selecting the folder but doesn't highlight it blue so that it doesn't SEEM like it is selected. The reason it opens isn't because there's a slower double click speed suddenly like I described it's just that I don't realise that I've already technically clicked a folder once already so when I click it again it's now a second click and is registered as a double click. I'd still like to know how to stop this. I don't want to adjust my double click speed because I like it as it is, I just want when I click on a folder in an inactive window for that folder to either: 1. be selected and highlighted the same way clicking once would do in an active window OR 2. not be selected at all requiring me to click once more but this second click would be registered as the first as the initial click was only for making the folder active.