MacOS – Lion Preview window stuck as always on top

Boot to single user mode (Command-S) and see what fsck shows.

• /sbin/fsck -fy
• repeat the prior up to three times if needed

Assuming it boots, you can halt and then boot in verbose mode (Command-V) to restore all the console glory.

You can also peek at /private/var/log/system.log while on single user mode to see what was happening when the clock was passing faster than the gray progress bar.

What you want can be accomplished with Automator which comes with OS X.

1. Open Automator from the Applications folder

2. Choose New from the File menu or type ⌘-N and choose 'Application'

3. Search Actions for Launch and drag Launch Application to the workflow on the right

4. set the app to Word or whatever else you're having the problem with

5. search Actions for 'Pause' and drag pause to the workflow, set it to however long it takes word to open for you (e.g. 5 seconds)

6. search Actions for Open Finder Items and add that to the workflow.

7. Save it as an Application, drag it to your dock and drag docs on to the icon for it when you want them to open on top of the previous Word docs.

N.B. you can also set all documents to open using your freshly created app, so you can just open them as usual, but then a delay will permanently be added to their opening.