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In an app I'm writing, the user has the choice to apply a given action to either the "focused window", the "topmost window" or the "window that's being pointed by the mouse".

Is there a way to refer to the latter case in adjetive form?

e.g. "pointed window" or "hovered window".
None of these sound right, though.


More info:
The target audience is people who are at least familiar with the concept of "focused/active window". So that they may want to perform an action on a window that's not focused by pointing it with their mouse.

In summary, we have 3 different concepts:

  1. focused/active/foreground window
  2. topmost window
  3. pointed by mouse window

These 3 concepts may correspond to 3 completely different windows at a given time. That's why it's important that my users may choose which one they want.

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  • Care to share some more context? The phrasing you choose should depend on your audience. Commented Dec 26, 2017 at 20:05
  • I think you could just say "another window". The mechanism by which that other window will be selected (pointing, hovering, whatever) isn't relevant at that point.
    – Matt Obee
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 15:02

1 Answer 1

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Edit: You should give these windows names as early as possible, and always use those names to refer to those windows. Whether the names are "Input Window", "Alert Window", or simply "Window A" and "Window B".

Also consider changing your phrasing to refer to what is inside of the windows, rather than the windows themselves. Without knowing what the workflow is, it's hard to give more advice.

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    I think the point is to be able to point to background windows
    – anna328p
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 2:57
  • @DmitryKudriavtsev, that's exactly the point. You hover your mouse over a window to indicate that's the window you want to operate with, even if that window is not the focused/active/foreground window.
    – GetFree
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 11:57
  • @GetFree That is a hovered element/ window. Are you sure it is the best idea to use focused and hover for two different categories? On mobile, this will be tricky. Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 12:20
  • @MadalinaTaina, The concept of window under mouse makes sense only on devices with a pointing arrow cursor. On other devices, that concept will not be used at all.
    – GetFree
    Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 13:50

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