Member Avatar for scrypt3r

Does anyone know how to Detect Mouse Click Anywhere on Window, Not just on form?

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Short answer for : bind a handler to the document or window instead of a specific form. If you meant clicks anywhere inside the browser page (not the OS desktop), the page-level event will catch them. is right to ask for clarification — "window" (the browser) and "form" (a DOM element) are different. 's thread about multiple forms is related when you need to ignore clicks that happen inside a particular form.

A simple, cross-browser pattern:

function anywhereClick(e) {
  e = e || window.event;
  var target = e.target || e.srcElement;
  // handle the click
}

if (document.addEventListener) {
  // use capture to catch clicks even if children call stopPropagation
  document.addEventListener('click', anywhereClick, true);
} else if (document.attachEvent) {
  // old IE fallback
  document.attachEvent('onclick', anywhereClick);
}

Notes and gotchas:

  • Use capture (third arg true) if some controls call stopPropagation() and prevent bubbling; see event bubbling and capture.
  • For immediate detection use mousedown/pointerdown instead of click (click fires after mouseup).
  • Right-clicks fire contextmenu; touch devices and pointer devices behave differently (consider pointer events for cross-device).
  • Clicks inside cross-origin iframes are not visible to the parent page. Detecting clicks outside the browser window (desktop) is not possible from a webpage for security reasons.
  • If the handler doesn't run, ensure the script runs after DOM load (place at end of body or use DOMContentLoaded). For modern uses prefer addEventListener over globals. See addEventListener for details.

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Member Avatar for ddanbe

So it happens we are faced with some kind of the same problem.
Look at my thread "Problem with 2 forms" maybe it helps.

Member Avatar for LizR

But the window *IS* the form, unless you meant desktop.

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