I would like the any lists set to auto-hide to do so as soon as I mouse away from them. The Help item entitled "Auto-hide scrolling" seems to indicate that the "Time-out before Auto-hide (in ms)" setting (Configuration | Application Layout) controls this. It says:

"This field is used to specify the number of milliseconds of delay that will pass before an auto-hide occurs when a child window which is configured to auto-hide loses focus."

It was set to 700 (ms). I tried changing it to "0". No matter what setting I choose, the lists scroll out, but will not scroll away until I click in the document or hot-key to another application. I guess the key here is "loses focus". Simply mousing away does not change the focus.

I don't suppose there is any way to get it to work like the auto-hide taskbar in Windows.

Thanks

Well, the auto-hide feature for the views works exactly as the auto-hide feature of the Windows taskbar of Windows XP.

As long as the view has not the focus, i.e. the title bar of the view shows the inactive color (gray with Windows Classic theme), moving the mouse pointer anywhere outside the area of the view results in hiding the view. But when the view has the focus indicated by active color in the title bar of the view (blue with Windows Classic theme), moving mouse pointer outside of the view area is not enough, the focus must be changed also to any other window. You detected that already by yourself.

The Windows taskbar works the same. As long as you don't set the focus on the taskbar for example by clicking with left mouse button on a free area of the taskbar, the taskbar hides itself automatically when mouse pointer leaves the area of the taskbar. But with setting focus to the Windows taskbar, it will not auto-hide itself anymore until any other window gets the focus.

It is possible to program that a window / view currently having the focus gives another window / view the focus, but which one? Not user driven focus change is always very problematic, especially when a mouse move by 1 pixel can be the trigger for such a focus change.

It's a little more complicated that I thought -- and it's not consistent.

I currently have 4 lists all attached to the right edge of the window: Bookmark Viewer (BV), Open Files (OF), ASCII Table (AT), and Function List (FK). If I mouse over any of them (just hover, not clicking), they scroll out into view, but some have the focus and some do not.

BV and FL always appear with the focus (blue title bar). Mousing away does not trigger auto-hide.

OF always appears without the focus (grey title bar). Mousing away does trigger auto-hide.

AT varies. Most of the time, it appears with the focus. But if I first hover over FL and then mouse up to AT, it appears without the focus.

As far as I can tell, all 4 have the same settings (auto-hide and undockable).

I think there is a little bug here...

You are right, there are differences. The Output Window and the File Tree View (Workspace Manager in UEStudio) are the only views which do not get automatically the focus on opening / showing. All other views get automatically the focus on opening / showing. The reason is perhaps that these 2 views are very often permanent open and there are commands to switch the focus from active document window to the File Tree View respectively the Output Window and back from these 2 views to active document window. So for these 2 views a user (like I) preferring the keyboard when working with UE instead of using the mouse, it is possible to open the view, switch the focus to the view with the hotkeys of the 2 commands and navigate in the view using the keyboard. For all other views for which no such command is available, it is good that the view gets automatically the focus, otherwise it would not be possible for a user preferring the keyboard to navigate in the view without activating it using the mouse (or touchpad or stick).

But I agree that the current behavior of always setting focus to the view just displayed by moving the mouse pointer over its tab can be annoying for a user preferring the mouse for working with the views. I suggest that you send an enhancement request by email to IDM support. A view with Auto Hide enabled should never get the focus when opened by moving mouse pointer over its tab because the user definitely already uses the mouse and navigates surely in the view also with the mouse and therefore it does not matter if the view has the focus or not. Only if a view is opened by hotkey (as I always use), or by clicking on its menu item in View - Views/Lists (same as opening by hotkey), or if Auto Hide is not enabled for the view, the current behavior with setting focus should remain.

And to be honest I would wish that opening the File Tree View with hotkey (or clicking on View - Views/Lists - File Tree View) would result also in setting the focus to the just opened view. But I have never requested that from IDM because I use the File Tree View vary rarely.

For the Output Window I prefer that with opening the output window, it does not get the focus because navigating through the lines in the output window can be done directly from within the document window using Ctrl+Shift+Down/Up Arrow. And with UE v16.30 all the context menu commands of the output window are available also by hotkey because of the Out* commands in the key mapping configuration dialog (at bottom of the commands list if option Sort is not enabled).