<b>Troubleshooting Apple Data Detectors

Readers continue to send reports of assorted problems with Apple Data Detectors (ADD). Here are some highlights:

Keyboard layout problems Steve Davidson writes that he could not get the new ADD to work at all. However, he found the solution in an Apple Discussion Board posting. "It suggested that a keyboard layout selection (from the Keyboard Control Panel) was the cause. I was using a modified keyboard layout. I switched back to the standard (US) keyboard and re-installed the software." That solved the problem.

Jerry Kindall was having similar problems when using his Dvorak keyboard layout: "ADD apparently issues a Copy command via the keyboard (Cmd-C) to get the selection in non-CMM-aware apps; however, it seems to do this by ADB key code rather than by ASCII character code. Thus, it didn't work with my Dvorak keyboard layout." He would get avariety of strange symptoms. After he updated from ADD 1.0.1 to 1.0.2, the strange symptoms went away. But at a cost! Now ADD would not work at all. He believes it is due to the new Contextual Menu Enabler 1.0.3 included with ADD 1.0.2. "Apparently the Contextual Menu Manager turns itself off entirely if you're not using a keyboard layout it recognizes."

Update: Michael Joiner notes that either reverting back to Contextual Menu Enabler 1.0.2 (although this means losing the ability to disable contextual menus from the Help menu) or using a U.S. keyboard layout resolves the problem.

MS Office Microsoft Office 98 may have a problem with the Contextual Menu Enabler 1.0.2 extension. The result is that contextual menus will not work within Office. Enabler 1.0.3 may work okay. A related posting on MacNN says: "Microsoft notes that Apple Internet Address Detectors requires that you turn off contextual menus in Office to use the built-in Contextual Menu (CMM) routines: 'Only one set of CMMs are usable at one time- either the System menus (which include ADD) or built-in menus.'"]

PowerWindows ADD 1.0.2 is incompatible with the shareware utility PowerWindows, according to several reports.

Downgrading to 1.0.1 For those who try ADD 1.0.2 and decide that they would rather return to version 1.0.1: If you just need the 1.0.1 Internet Address Detectors component of ADD, it is still available at an AppleScript site. (Thanks, Shiro Wilde.)