doedit does not open do-file editor

[Dirk Enzmann]

With the use of Stata's dofile-editor I am experiencing three (related?) problems:

• Clicking on the do-file editor icon within Stata will not change the focus to the do-file editor. Instead, each time a new do-file will be created. Only when I use the small arrow next to the do-file icon I can choose a file and the do-file editor will open. Alternatively I can use the <Alt-Tab> combination to change to the do-file editor.
• Likewise, issuing the command doedit foo.do in Stata's command window will not change the focus to the do-file editor (although the file will be "loaded" to the do-file editor and I can change to the do-file editor either by using the small arrow next to the do-file editor icon or by using the <Alt-Tab> combination).
• Although Stata will open a do-file with its do-file editor if I double-click on the file to start Stata and let it open the file, the do-file editor will not receive focus (only if I subsequently use the small arrow next to the do-file editor icon or by using the <Alt-Tab> combination).

Note the do-file editor option "Edit do-file opened from Windows instead of executing them" is checked to be active. My operating system is Windows 7. I also checked whether my problem might be related to the problem described in a post by David Radwin, but in this respect everything seems to be OK.

Any suggestions how to solve the issue?

[Jesse Tielens]

I just checked how this works for me, and the Stata windows do get focus. Since, Stata has no setting to change this behavior I'd guess it's more than likely a Windows issue not a Stata issue.

Do you experience this issue with other programs? When you open them, do other programs ever get opened in the background?

If that's the case, check out this thread of Windows users offering solutions to this problem. There are quite a few people that had a similar issue it seems.

[Dirk Enzmann]

I did experience the same behavior on a second computer. Then I tinkered with customizing the Stata toolbar and the problem vanished.

Whereas the problem has been reproducible on the first computer (closing and starting Stata did not change the behavior), it also vanished after playing with customizing the toolbar (e.g. I tried to add a doedit command, but ultimately left the toolbar unchanged). What exactly helped is unclear.