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General discussion

Keyboard/mouse problems

Sep 30, 2008 7:40AM PDT

I wanted to loosen up the action on the keyboard and mouse for my Sawtooth G4 desktop. I adjusted the keyboard and mouse preferences, including making sure that the one for which button to use most of the time on my two-button mouse was set to "left." I opened "Options" on the keyboard shortcuts, just out of curiosity but didn't change anything. (I have never chosen any specialized keyboard shortcuts and use only the default ones.)

Then strange things started happening, including the fact that I was having trouble opening applications such as Firefox (2) with a double-click. I could open it only by holding down the righthand button on the mouse and choosing "Open." Not a big problem, but a nuisance.

I decided to look at the keyboard preferences again, and when I scrolled down the list, I noticed that there were four of them with little yellow triangles and exclamation points, indicating that those were being asked, quite uselessly, to serve two different functions. They were:

"Show Spotlight Search field" and "Select previous input source"?each with symbols for Command and space.

"Show Spotlight window" and "Select the next input source in the input window"?each with the symbols for Command, Option (I think) and space.

As I said above, I've never chosen to link any keyboard strokes to a special purpose. I tried clicking on the option to restore the default settings, but it didn't do the trick.

Any thoughts? Clearly, I did something I didn't know about when I changed the sliders for the keyboard and mouse?or maybe it happened at some other time, and it was just a coincidence with that.

Thanks for your help,

Jenny

Discussion is locked

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Wrong forum? If so, sorry!
Sep 30, 2008 8:10AM PDT

I just realized that I probably should have posted my message about the keyboard and mouse in the Mac OS forum. If I did wrong, I beg your indulgence and forgiveness. It's been a brute of a month, and I am not all there right now.

Thanks, everyone!

jenny

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Not a problem,
Sep 30, 2008 10:58AM PDT

OS version?

In 10.5, System Prefs, keyboard and mouse, there is a pretty picture of a mighty mouse.
Next to each "button" there is a drop down menu that allows you to choose what it is that you want that button to do.
This is NOT connected with Keyboard shortcuts. Whether you assign any or not, there are some there by default.
The only place I saw a "Defaults" button was in KB shortcuts.

Go back to the mouse tab and take a look there. Set the Left button as Primary and the Right as Secondary.
Vice Versa if you are a lefty.

P

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Still using Tiger
Oct 1, 2008 12:20AM PDT

Sorry, I meant to include the OS version. I am using OS 10.4.11, not 10.5, but I hope your advice still stands. Still, I don't understand:

(1) Why can't I open Firefox (and maybe other applications) by double-clicking but can click on links and open them fine? To open Firefox, for example, I must use the right button to choose "Open" (sometimes, after having had to ask to see the original of the app) instead of clicking.

(2) How there came to be two keystroke combinations for four different operations. Clearly, the computer doesn't like that, either, because there is the dramatic yellow triangle and exclamation point next to each and a grim message about not being able to assign the same key combination to two different operations.

Since I didn't change anything and never assigned anything on the keyboard to do anything special, I'm perplexed, and I would like to undo this kerfuffle, if I can. And yes, the defaults option was only in Keyboard Shortcuts, which I only looked at and didn't fool with, except for trying to undo the situation described above. Still, wouldn't you think that even if I had changed something, I'd be able to get rid of the conflicts by asking for it to restore the defaults?

(3) The mouse button choices are just as you have described. Although I am left-handed, I use my right hand for many things, and the primary mouse button is the lefthand one. Would things get reset by my changing this order and then changing back? I guess it's worth a try. All I changed before was the speed of clicking, of key response and of the cursor response speed. The choice of which button on the mouse to use as primary never came into it: It is as it was when I opened the preferences window. Very strange!

By the way, when the silly business of not being able to open applications in the normal way turned up, I ran Disk Warrior and Disk Utility. Neither did away with the anomaly.

Thanks again. This is not a serious problem, but I'd like to set things to rights when I can.

Best,

Jenny