DITA: Avoid losing your mouse's focus during transform builds
When you initiate a bunch of transformations in OxygenXML, each time Java processes the transform, your mouse loses focus as you see the Java icon appear in your toolbar to start the build and then disappear when it's finished building (at least on a Mac). This can be extremely annoying, especially if you have more than 5 or 6 transforms. You end up just sitting there waiting until you have control with your computer again.
Fortunately, you can stop Java from taking away your mouse's focus. For DITA-OT/ANT transforms:
- Edit the transformation scenario (or go to ).
- Click the Advanced tab.
- In the JVM arguments field, for Macs, add a space after the first parameter, and then
-Dapple.awt.UIElement=true. For PCs, add-Djava.awt.headless=true.
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About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, agent skills, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my AI courses for more on the latest in AI and tech comm. If you're looking for info about documenting APIs, see my API documentation course.
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