---
title: "Dialogs that block the page"
description: "Why comments sometimes cannot be clicked while a site's dialog is open, Interactive mode and Inert mode, and where each stops."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://commentware.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Dialogs that block the page

Some things a website can do block the rest of the page. A dialog opened as a
_modal_ does it, and so does a video or a slide deck that has gone fullscreen.
While one of those is up, the browser makes everything else on the page
_inert_: it takes no clicks and no typing — including the comment overlay, even
though it is still drawn on top of it.

## The browser's rule

This is the browser's own rule and nothing in Commentware overrides it. There is
no setting, no z-index and no permission that lets two things both block the
page. Only one of them can.

## Interactive mode and Inert mode

The overlay is in one of two modes, and the extension names the one it is in
when it changes:

- **Interactive mode** is the ordinary state. Nothing is blocking the page, so
  the overlay and the page both work.
- **Inert mode** is the state while something on the page is blocking it. If it
  happens with the overlay open, comments close themselves rather than sitting
  on top of a dialog they cannot be used with, and a line says why. Open the
  overlay again while the dialog is up and comments block the page instead:
  every pin, the toolbar and the composer work, and the site's own dialog stops
  responding until you close the overlay. Both are Inert mode, because still
  only one thing can block the page at a time.

## Where each mode stops

- **The site's dialog does not close.** It is still there and still open; it is
  only unable to be clicked while comments block the page. Everything typed into
  it is where it was.
- **A site can open a second dialog over the first, and the extension takes
  the page back.** While comments block the page, the extension checks every
  half second whether a dialog is above them, and takes the page back each time
  one is, with no limit. Nothing on screen marks a retake: comments stay
  on top.
- **A site that closes its dialog and opens it again wins.** The block ends
  when the dialog closes, and the reopened dialog counts as a new block, so
  comments close and a line says why. A page that closes and reopens its dialog
  on a timer keeps comments closed on it.
- **Sometimes the extension cannot tell that the dialog has gone.** Some sites
  build a dialog deeper inside their own page components than the extension
  searches, or block the page in a way it does not recognize. When that happens
  comments keep blocking the page until you close them, or until the site
  removes that part of the page.
- **Closing comments this way is remembered.** If a site's entry popup closed
  the overlay for you, comments stay closed on the next page too until you press
  the shortcut again.
- **Covered is not blocked.** In a browser without the popover API, a page
  element can be painted over the whole overlay without blocking anything.
  Nothing can be claimed back from that, and the line on the toolbar says to
  move the toolbar or scroll.

## Next steps

- [Use comments over a dialog](/docs/using/modes/): open comments over a dialog,
  and close them again.