How to make inactive when I close application window by Command + W
You can do this with Keyboard Maestro.
Create a macro group just for Excel, then create a macro that executes upon ⌘W which closes the window and switches focus to Finder.
I'm not sure you can really have both…
Telling Excel to close a window doesn't tell Excel to quit. It doesn't actually tell it anything other than you closed a window. It sits there waiting for you to tell it what to do next; it can't guess what your next action is going to be.
Of course, if you Quit it, then it goes away & the last-used app will be frontmost.
Clicking the desktop is the quickest way to bring the Finder to the front.
Update 1
Based on the comments made by ironsand to grgarside's answer. Step 6 should be changed to:
tell application "System Events" to set activeApp to name of application processes whose frontmost is true
if length of activeApp is not 0 then
tell application (first item of activeApp) to activate
end if
My Answer to Posted Question
This can be done by creating a Service using the Automator application. However, you will not be able to use the the COMMAND+W key. I would suggest using the CONTROL+W key since Excel has not yet assigned this key to any function.
- Open the Automator Application and click on New Document.
- Select Service and click Choose.
- Select File->Save from Menus and save service as "Close and Activate Finder". You should see the following window. (Hint: "Open Image in a New Window" for a better view.)
- Drag "Close Excel Workbooks" to "Drag actions or files here to build your workflow" window. In the pop up window, click on "Don't Add".
- Drag "Run AppleScript" to "Drag actions or files here to build your workflow" window.
- Add the text line
activate application "Finder"
after the text line(* Your script goes here *)
.
The window should now appear as shown below.
- Under "Service receives selected" choose "no input".
- Change "any application" to "Other...". In the pop-up window, choose "Microsoft Excel". The window should now appear as shown below.
- Select File->Save from Menus.
- Select Automator->Services->Services Preferences... from the Menus. Find "Close and Activate Finder" at the bottom of the available services.
- Click twice on the word "none" to the right of "Close and Active Finder". Enter the CONTROL-W key. The window should now appear as shown below.
Quit System Preferences and Automator applications.
Test using the Finder and Excel applications.