jbl

For some reason unknown to myself, the forward slash and apostrophe keys are not working properly on my macbook. On any forum page, including this one, if I hit either of those keys then a little Quick Find Google window opens at the bottom left corner of the page instead of the keyboard key image ! Just those two keys, no others. I have run Utilities , Disk, Permission verify and repair etc and all is OK. I have run an ONYX clean up and all is OK , but the problem still exists.
What do I do ? Yes the ? and " are OK but not the lower case function.
Thanks

jbl

RichB

Check your sysprefs->keyboard & mouse->keyboard shortcuts

Maybe you have something odd set up in there...

jbl

Thanks RichB,

Tried that but it all appears OK. I hit the restore to default for the keyboard shortcuts page but couldn't see (''' and // work now, 5 min ago they didn't !!! very frustrating ) any changes. It looks like an intermittent fault which will be a b***** to solve.

Cheers

Brian ''' ///

Markus

I've been thinking about this one, hence a lack of reply until now.

I had a weird issue in Terminal/TextEdit where the forward slash key was being escaped, something like /301/309/ which is a tad annoying. Finally tracked it down to the setting in the Input menu being incorrect.

Open up System Preferences, then go into International. Firstly, check that English is at the top of the list, if not, move it so it is. Then go into Formats, make sure it's set to whatever you want (probably British, or custom if you want to change some of the options). Now go into Input Menu.
What you want to do here is have a look at what items are checked, ideally, unless you're multi-lingual, I'd uncheck everything except British.
What happened to me was it was using "Canadian - CSA" and thus a different keyboard mapping was being used, one for French keyboards, which is what was messing things up.

The other key thing here is the Input menu shortcuts, If you have more than one input method selected then the shortcuts listed in the dialog, command + space and option + command + space will cycle through them. You may have set a shortcut to command space for something, but this option may have overridden that new shortcut, or, possibly, be happening at the same time, so everytime you use your shortcut to do whatever you want, it'll also change the layout.

If you don't use the shortcut that frequently then it could explain why you see the problem sometimes and not others, as you may have two input methods, and the first use will switch you from a good one to a bad one (one with the issue) then the next use switches you back to the good one.

** edit **
A thought. Do you, perchance, use the command + space combo to invoke Spotlight (one presumes you're 10.4/10.5) if so, that might be the problem. I've tried it on 10.5.1 and it does display an alert symbol next to the command space combo in the input menu section of International, and does not seem to change the combination, it's possible you may have changed it to something else, or, you might have a different combo for spotlight, thus when you try command + space, it does not activate spotlight, but changes the input.

jbl

Thankyou Markus,
Have followed your thread but all is as should be.

English is at the top of the list.

Formats is set to all UK specifics

Input menu all unchecked except for British

Input source options set for use one source

I always use the Spotlight icon right in the top right corner of the screen, never the shortcut. Just tried the short cut and spotlight opened as normal.

Thanks again, but looks like a dealer helpline call on Monday !

Cheers


Brian/' now working !!!!/'

BuRR

I had a nightmare when I got my black macbook

I bought it in the states last august, which was nice as it was cheap ... BUT the plastic had bowed a bit near the trackpad. So it went back.

got it back 2 weeks later (my friend brought it to the UK for me) all fixed... but NOT.... the letter L key didn't work, at all!

Went back to a local repairer and they replaced the whole top case. EXCEPT... the new topcover had a nasty blemish on the trackpad... like a piece of grit stuck under the trackpad surface. REALLY irritating.... so it went back to another local repairer.....


.... who fixed it.... and now I have a UK keyboard and all works fine!

But I want a Macbook Pro!