I have run into a problem recently that I never had in Emailer or OE. When I
am addressing a message...say for instance to this list..I often will count
on autocomplete to fill in the address for me. I start a new message and
just type "ent", knowing that the program will locate the entry in my
Address Book for "Enrourage.mac Talk," and will fill it in. But what has
been happening is this:
I <also> have defined a shortcut in SpellCatcher that will replace "ent"
when I type it with "Entourage". Since I often use this word in my mail,
especially on this Entourage list, I very much value having a shorthand for
it. So, when I type those three letters in my address field, SpellCatcher
and Entourage <both> do something with it. I think Entourage goes first, and
replaces the string with the desired E-mail address. But then, suddenly, I'm
tabbed into a second recipient field, and I see "Entourage" being typed out,
and then that gets replaced by another copy of the same address. I get the
message addressed to the list twice.
Other times, a timing thing, I get the retyped line occurring in the Subject
field. This can erase an existing subject, and if I don't notice it right
away (typing blind, as I often do), I lose that subject.
I can work around the problem by typing "ento" instead of "ent" because SC
does not see that as a shorthand phrase to be expanded. I have also set SC's
preferences (locally for Entourage) to NOT do interactive checking after a
tab or return, an option they provided, actually, for use with database
programs. This is a slight inconvenience, since I sometimes will misspell
something and follow it with a tab or return (rather than a punctuation or
space). But, it seems a small price to pay.
A VERY MUCH RELATED CONFLICT/BUG occurs in the address book. And it is a lot
more dangerous.
If, in the filter field, I type a name such as "perry" and follow it with a
Tab, I suddenly get a dialog box saying, "Do you really want to delete the
selected contact(s)?" The first time that happened I nearly clicked "Yes"
before I really read the message! Once it occurred with about 100 contacts
selected; yikes!
What I think is happening is this: I type the name in lower case. Something
(SC, I have discovered) is detecting that word as a proper name and is
trying to retype it, capitalized (which is what happens if I do NOT type a
Tab). I suspect that what is going on is that I am typing Tab before the
correction kicks in, thus changing the focus to the pane listing the
contacts. And then, the autocorrection comes along and tries to DELETE the
lowercase word and replace it with the uppercase word. This includes
"typing" delete characters to remove the word in error. But "Delete" in the
Contacts pane means "Delete the selected contact(s)."
I just checked, and replacing the "missing" capital letters seems to be
something that SpellCatcher was doing <in my messages>; it stopped when I
turned off its interactive checking. So, I can cure this problem (I think)
by changing SC's preference for Entourage, telling it NOT to replace missing
capitals. Alternatively, the change to not check after tab and return may do
the trick.
Whatever you call this behavior, it needs to be fixed or at least warned
about somehow. If I could, I would simply disable the keyboard shortcut of
Delete for "Delete." I'd make the shortcut be "Command-Delete." But I don't
know if there is any way to disable that single-key shortcut. I'd like to
see that as an option anyhow; I never like single-key shortcuts for
irreversible actions. Another thing, and I don't know if this is possible:
Is there some way to tell when you are getting actual keystrokes, and when
you are seeing simulated keystrokes? Would it be possible to disable
recognition of the Delete key if it is simulated? (If a script is doing
this, there are menu or script commands to do it.)
As I say, turning off the preferences in SpellCatcher <does> seem to cure
the problem in the Address Book and the one in addressing messages. It's
fortunate that SC has the ability to set preferences on an application by
application basis. Other folks with SpellCatcher may have noticed these
glitches, and perhaps it deserves a note as a sort of "known conflict," with
some suggestions for the workaround.
--
Peace,
Allen Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> XNS name: =Allen Watson
A Mac family since 1984
My web page: <http://home.earthlink.net/~allenwatson/>
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