How to control the focus system in 12.04

Question

I recently moved over from Windows, and I apologize if this is a stupid question but I read the manual, tried searching various terms, and could not find anything that helped me.

I don't know how to switch focus in Ubuntu. For example when I click something to download from Firefox, and the pop up comes up asking if I want to save the file, I can't get my mouse to be active on the new window. I try clicking the top of the new window, I tried clicking on the top of the active window then the top of the new window, I pop up the dash and then put it away.

I've tried Ctrl+Alt+F2 then Ctrl+Alt+F7 because someone with a similar problem solved it by doing that each time but it doesn't work. I just Alt+F4 the browser then push tab until the save button is highlighted then push enter, but its not a solution that is practical.

I tried reading the manual, Ubuntu desktop tutorial, YouTube videos for complete beginners, and the YouTube video user's mouse works fine while mine does not, even if I mimic his exact actions.

I reinstalled Ubuntu and followed everything the guy did for searching files and my mouse does not work like his does. I'm sure the solution is really simple but I've spent 2 hours a day for the past 2 days Googling on a separate computer and I can't find a solution and its stressing me out. Please help.

Answer 1

Assuming your left-mouse button works and you haven't switched the buttons around in the mouse-settings, it seems to me that your problem is that you are clicking on a link (so the left-mouse button does work actaully), and that this link would start up another application which you cannot see because it's hidden by the Firefox window.

Can you not simply use the ALT-TAB key combination to switch focus to the other application?

Maybe part of you problem probably happens because you have Firefox maximized, so you cannot move the window around to get to other windows. If you move your mouse to the top left corner you will see the 3 symbols X _ and the square-symbol (Exit, Minimize and Maximize) you know from windows. Clicking on the square symbol will make your Firefox window one of the many windows on the desktop.