prevent figure window to be hidden after keypress

Hi,

I have a script in which a figure window pops up and an inputdlg, whereas the inputdlg will close after 10 seconds. The user has to submit an answer within these 10 seconds and submit this by pressing 'enter'. However, if the user presses 'enter' too late (after the inputdlg has closed so only the figure window is left) the figure window will hide behind another window

How do I prevent this? How do I make sure the figure window won't be hiddenafter pressing any key.

Thank you!

[DGM]

It's unclear why a figure window would disappear when enter is pressed. The only thing I could think of is that the figure window simply isn't focused and pressing enter raises the IDE window over it. Check that you don't have a bunch of hidden figure windows.

If the figure is indeed being closed by hitting enter, you'll have to figure out why that is. Since I don't know what code you wrote, it's hard to say.

[Judith Atsma]

For example, I'd use this code:

axis off

text(0.5, 0.6, 'Hello everyone', 'HorizontalAlignment', 'center', 'FontSize', 15);

set(gcf, 'MenuBar', 'none', 'WindowState', 'Maximized');

This would create a figure window concluding the text 'Hello everyone'. Whenever I press any key of the keyboard, the figure window would disappear of my screen. How do I make sure a key press won't do this

[DGM]

Again, is the figure actually being closed, or is it simply being minimized or hidden behind another window? In all the versions I have, hitting enter won't normally close a figure, even if the figure is focused.

[Judith Atsma]

Yes, sorry. I mean hidden behind another window

[DGM]

The figure gets hidden due to the window manager-specific behavior regarding window stacking and focus. There's probably a workaround, unless it involves adding something to the figure that allows it to accept keyboard events, which seems terribly ineffective.

There's always the option to force the window to always stay on top by setting the WindowStyle property to "modal" (probably not desired) or setting the WindowStyle property to "alwaysontop" (works for uifigures but not figures; requires R2021a or newer)

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/16062-making-a-figure-always-on-top#answer_696720

This might also work, though I haven't tried it and don't know the exact behavior.

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/42252-winontop

Using 'modal' style would definitely force the figure to stay on top, but it would prevent anything else from receiving keyboard or mouse events until the figure is closed. Using 'alwaysontop' simply keeps the window on top but lets underlying windows receive events.

There are obviously ways to do it by using system() calls to change window-manager-specific settings for the window, but that's environment-specific.

[Judith Atsma]

Thanks a lot!