Almost everyone loves a good mystery…except when it interferes with their daily work! One of the biggest mysteries which pops up regularly in Macintosh user forums is missing keystrokes, which disappear, sometimes regularly, sometimes sporadically. (I haven’t seen this in the Windows forums, but, being more of a Mac guy, I don’t spend as much time there!) Unfortunately for computer detectives, there isn’t just one solution to this mystery.
Keyboard shortcuts stop working
There are actually two types of missing keystrokes reported. The first is usually easier to handle: This is when keyboard shortcuts stop working. Here’s a typical report: “I am using IDCS2 4.0.4 on a G5 dual 1.8 running 10.4.7 and whenever I use the print dialogue box all of my keyboard shortcuts stop working until relaunch. Any clues on how to resolve this?”
This can happen when a keyboard shortcuts file gets corrupted, or when InDesign’s own preferences get mangled. Here’s some advice from Nini Tjäder who manages workstations at a newspaper in Sweden: “Keyboard shortcuts giving up happens regularly with our editors (I work at a daily newspaper). Did in CS1 and does in CS2 as well. One of the reasons for them to give up can be a newly installed script. Apart from that, reasons are mysterious. Sometimes a restart of ID fixes it, sometimes not. Sometimes choosing another shortcut set than the one you use and then switch back to your regular one fixes it. Sometimes not. Having a backup file of the shortcuts is a good idea so you can put them in again without too much effort if they stop working.”
Others in the thread report that keyboard shortcuts stop working when they switch to another application in certain circumstances, then return to InDesign. Relaunching InDesign usually fixes it, at least temporarily.
The case of the missing modifiers
The other mystery reports center on missing modifier keys. Here’s a common report from computer Scotland Yard: “I’ve run into the problem several times in InDesign where short cut keys would just quit working and I’d have to restart to fix the problem, but this time only a few of my short cut keys will not work – the space bar (hand tool) and zoom in & out (space/apple & space/apple/option) – and restarting the programs and even the computer is not fixing the problem. The same problem is occurring in both InDesign and Photoshop.”
It’s not just in InDesign. Here’s a report from the Illustrator Mac forum: “Illustrator CS now has many problems. Primarily, many key commands (constrain angle, duplicate etc.) no longer work. It’s as if those keys (option, shift) just fail to work during certain situations.”
Here’s a list of possible solutions garnered from these threads and an Adobe tech note on the problem:
- If it’s only Command + Space Bar (or that plus another modifier), the finger can probably be pointed at your OS default settings. Open System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard. Look at the settings for Input Menu and/or Spotlight in that list. Either turn off or reassign the keystrokes there.
- Some applications which are running at the same time (Microsoft Entourage, Kanzu Software Image Info) may need to be updated or turned off. In particular, if you are using Microsoft Entourage as part of Microsoft Office 2004, download and install Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Service Pack 1 (11.1.0). Visit the Microsoft website at www.microsoft.com/downloads/ and search using Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Service Pack 1.
- To test if there are third-party kernel extensions or startup items might be interfering with modifier keys, you can launch in Safe Boot mode. To start in Safe Boot mode: (1) Restart the computer, and hold down the Shift key immediately after you hear the chimes. (2) Release the Shift key when the Apple logo appears. When the computer is in Safe Boot mode, the words Safe Boot appear on the Apple logo.
- Startup applications which reside in your computer’s memory (perhaps to do background scheduling, for example), can interfere with modifier keys. The problem may be figuring out which one it is. Here’s a recommendation from the Illustrator thread (post #55): (1) Launch Activity Monitor (found in Applications > Utilities). This lists all the applications (including background processes) running on your computer. (2) Look for scheduler-type processes in the list of Process Names. Select one, and click the Quit Process button. (3) Return to InDesign and see if the missing modifiers work. (4) Return to Activity Monitor and kill another process. (5) Return to InDesign and test again. (6) Repeat as needed. If you find one, disable it in System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items. Run whatever it does manually.
- Finally, it can be a hardware problem. Another person in the same thread reported excitedly, “After going through a myriad of possible fixes I have finally tracked it down to a VIDEO CARD! I had bought an ATI Radeon 9200 video card for my G4 dual 500 computer to drive a new Dell 24″ monitor.”
So there really can be many, many causes for this sticky problem. If you’ve found other solutions to these problems, please share them here with others!
This article was last modified on December 18, 2021
This article was first published on December 9, 2006
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