Selection and Focus in Golden Gate
Now move the pointer to the right edge of the list of folder contents, just far enough to the left to avoid moving the window divider, but not so far as to fully select items from within that folder. Click there and the item will be selected, but in grey, the same as would appear if it had been fully selected but its window was no longer in focus. At this stage, the original folder will still be fully highlighted, as if nothing had been selected inside it, but you can drag that grey unfocussed selection to include other items inside the folder.
On my Mac, if I click on a file icon in the second column, the first column retains focus. The second column only gets focus if I click on a filename (or even farther to the right).
Now using the up and down arrow keys doesn’t move within the items inside that folder, but back with the fully highlighted folder. With a few of the items inside that folder in grey, so they’re selected but not in focus, press the spacebar for a QuickLook preview, and you’ll see the greyed items, not the folder that’s still fully selected to the left.
[…]
In other situations, this becomes infuriating.
In my log browser LogUI, separation of selection from focus can leave you clicking wildly without being able to select log entries.
Previously:
- Tahoe Broke Resizing Finder Column View
- Viewing Metadata in the Finder
- Mojave Finder’s Preview Column Shouldn’t Prioritize Thumbnail Size
