macOS has no system setting for focus-follows-mouse; only Terminal has a hidden option. Casement adds it to every app: the window under your pointer becomes active without coming to the front, so you can type into it straight away and the first click lands on what you pointed at.
The default Mac behaviour
A background window ignores typing until you click it. Many apps also treat that first click as "activate", not as a click on whatever was under the pointer.
What exists on macOS itself
Terminal has a hidden preference that gives it focus-follows-mouse between its own windows. It does not apply to other apps.
With Casement
- Hover over a window and it becomes the keyboard target.
- Nothing is raised, so overlapping windows do not shuffle.
- Four speeds and an exclude list.
Read more on the hover to focus feature page.
Limits
Some Chromium-based apps ignore focus changes that do not raise the window, so those may still need a click.
Is it for you?
- It helps if you keep several windows side by side and type into more than one.
- It can feel odd at first, because the pointer now has a job. A slower speed softens that.
- If you prefer clicking to focus, leave it off; the other Casement features do not depend on it.
If typing goes to the wrong window
Raise the delay, or add the app to the exclude list. In Chromium-based apps a click may still be needed, because they ignore focus changes that do not raise the window.
Questions people ask
Will this change my scrolling?
macOS already sends scroll events to the window under the pointer. Hover to focus adds keyboard input to that behaviour.
Try Casement
Casement is a menu-bar app for Mac that puts each Chrome profile in the Dock as its own icon and adds snap layouts, hover-to-focus, a window switcher, Dock window lists, a drop shelf and display controls..