I often start External Tools directly from the editor using shortcuts.
One very productivity-decreasing aspect of this for me today though is that each time I do this, the GUI focus inside EmEditor goes to the Output Bar, even though this bar is obviously normally only used to present output, and thus won’t need any GUI focus.
Rather, I normally just want to continue working in the editor area (using arrow keys, typing, copy/pasting etc) while taking a quick glance at the the results in the Output Bar once it has displayed its result (which, depending on which External Tool I use, could take up to 30 seconds), but today I always need to reach for the mouse and restore the GUI focus to the editor window every time to be able to continue to work, which is a big workflow wrecker for me. :(
My suggestion is therefore: Please default to not giving the Output Bar GUI focus when it is opened, or, at least make this an option for each External Tool.
Sounds reasonable?