Open applications in the background in OS X, I don't want my focus taken from me. Respect my Focus!

Question

I'm running El Capitan 10.11.4 on a 2014 Mac Mini.

I'm often running 10-14 apps at one time as I work writing reports, word/excel/Adobe/Safari/iTunes/calendar/etc...

Frequently I want to open another app, I want it to open in the background and go back to word/excel and keep working, but the launching app takes away my focus, sometimes 2 or 3 times. once for the splash screen, once for the open dialogue window, and again after I click 'new document'.

Another situation, I update an app in the background, like 1Password (beta) and every step it takes my focus back to the app being updated.

Is there anything I can do with Unix/Terminal, etc. to force all app activity to be done in the background, or to keep OS to respect my focus?

Answer 1

To launch an app in Finder in the background (hidden) you can use a simple Automator service. Open Automator app, select a service that accepts files or folders in Finder and add a Run Shell Script action with following contents:

for f in "$@"
do
    open "$f" --hide
done

Save the service as Open in background. Open System Preferences./ Keyboard / Shortcuts / Services, find your new service and assign a keyboard shortcut you desire. I chose a handy ShiftCmdB. Close System Preferences and test the service and the shortcut.

Nice thing about this is that it works with apps as well as documents.