Hi Richie, You're very welcome for the tip. I've relabeled the subject line and appended the original thread information about how the F6 key can put your keyboard into numeric keypad mode.
On Tuesday, September 18, 2007, at 10:13AM, "Richie Gardenhire" wrote: >Esther, I would like to thank you publicly for that tip. A couple of >people I worked with had that same problem I had and I was able to >get them going. This was probably one of the most important >troubleshooting tips I've received since subscribing to the list. >Richie Gardenhire, Anchorage, Alaska. Accidentally pressing the F6 key and switching your keyboard to num lock on is easy to do, especially when you frequently press (or try to press <grin>) the F5 key to turn VoiceOver on and off. When you toggle on num lock with F6 you can get into problems trying to type inputs in a number of situations. 1. Entering your password Since what you type isn't echoed, you can't tell that you're not getting the expected key sequences when the F6 num lock key has been toggled on. You also can't tell when you're caps lock key is on in this instance. 2. Typing in terminal Again, for those used to using a terminal window from linux, when your commands don't seem to register, it could be because num lock has been toggled on with the F6 key. 3. Variant's of Jed's case, where commands like control+option F8 suddenly stop working. 4. When you can't get VoiceOver to come up because it has been inadvertently shut down, and somehow the F6 key was pressed, so your key presses aren't generating the right commands. The status of Caps Lock and Num Lock keys engaged is usually indicated on keyboards with a light. Maybe we should ask for a key sequence in VoiceOver that allows us to check whether these keys are engaged. Cheers, Esther <appending earlier thread discussion describing issue> HI Jed, If you accidentally pressed the F6 key just to the right of the F5 key, you put your keyboard into numeric keypad mode. Try pressing the F6 key once to toggle this behavior off, and then press control-option F8 again. (And even on a laptop you don't need to press a function key before F8, or currently for any of the function keys F8 through F12). Another warning: if you've turned VoiceOver off and have toggled the F6 num lock key, when you reboot you may not be able to hear VoiceOver start up when you start your computer. You may have to toggle the F6 key first before you can start up VoiceOver with command-F5 or function command-F5 if you're on a laptop. If the num lock key (F6 on a Mac) is toggled on, you should also hear numbers "1 2 3" when you press the "j k l" keys. Numeric keypad entry mode is used to make entering numbers very fast -- all the numbers and math operation symbols can be quickly accessed with your right hand as though you were using a separate number pad. On a U.S. keyboard, "u i o" is "4 5 6" and "7 8 9" is just the same keys you type with num lock off. The "0" key is typed with "m". Oddly enough, this issue came up in an offlist email exchange last month, where pressing the F6 key allowed the user to restart VoiceOver after his machine had been shut down with VoiceOver turned off. >>> On 18 Sep 2007, at 06:24, Jed Barton wrote: >>> >>>> hey guys, >>>> any ideas why i can't get the voiceover utility to configure it to >>>> come up? >>>> I tried command option f8, but nothing. >>>> I even tried control option f8, and nothing. Cheers, Esther
