Maybe this little short code can help you this for the main patch for example

and for another example harmonizer :

Is the front message being sent to a [thispatcher] in the second patch?

PS mortimer, I think the abstraction openwin is missing from your example...

It is yes spectro

And you're definitely not sending the front message to both patchers (unintentionally) ? Edit: Ok, I didn't see the patch you posted. However the small patch does come to the foreground on my system when clicking on its front button. (5.1.7 OS 10.6.7)

Even when there is a fullscreened patch?

Yes. Definitely. Even when the patch is Fullscreen

make the subpatch floating, that's the only way to get it to the front of a fullscreen main patch (at least on XP)

how can I do that m8?

it might be different (=better) in max5, but in max4 i always had the same problem - when i originally wanted to switch between patches, which were all in fullscreen mode already.

but you can find solutions by the use of simple logic - dont forget that you can, for example, escape from the fs mode and restart it.

i also found various problems with fullscreen mode operations which were releated to order and threading. when something releated to [thispatcher] does not perform as exspected, try to use [defer] and [deferlow]. "make the subpatch floating, that's the only way to get it to the front of a fullscreen main patch (at least on XP)"

... or make it fullscreen, or escape the fullscreen mode of the previous window.

but dont do it by using the "normal" fullscreen mode - use [110.thisfullscreens] instead.

it works for fullscreen across several monitors, too, just give it the sceen(s) size(s) as arguments and connect it to [thispatcher].

for windows OS you might need to adapt the 20 30 n-40 n-45 numbers to your OS gui theme.  

-110

Sorry just here my openwin:

The floating of the window was my solution on XP! Thanks everyone for all these interesting concepts and ideas. Hope this thread comes in handy for others :)

really helpful! thans a lot!