cant change file names in finder

[Macky-Mac]

a friend with a new ibook (1 month old) using OS 10.4.2 is asking me for help with 2 problems.....which are maybe related?

Things were working fine until a few days ago but now he's unable to change the name of document files in the finder. He says he can highlight the name of the file and that the curser will appear, but when he tries to type in a new name nothing happens.

also, he's been able to use the up and down arrows to navigate through the list of files in the finder but that's also stopped working too

any ideas as to what he should try to fix this?

 

[jsw]

Just out of curiosity, when he opens System Preferences...->Keyboard & Mouse, then selects the Keyboard tab, can he type into the text field there?

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

The first problem seems to be a permissions issue, and repairing permissions might help...

The other one puzzles me a bit more...

 

[Macky-Mac]

Just out of curiosity, when he opens System Preferences...->Keyboard & Mouse, then selects the Keyboard tab, can he type into the text field there?

I'll ask him that.....I know he's using the computer and able to type stuff generally

 

[Macky-Mac]

The first problem seems to be a permissions issue, and repairing permissions might help...

The other one puzzles me a bit more...

repairing permissions was my first suggestion to him and I'm waiting to hear back as to whether that helped

 

[Abstract]

It doesn't, but restarting does.

I have had that bug pop up twice since I installed Tiger. You can try editing the name, but once the name is highlighted and you start typing, nothing happens. Repairing permissions did nothing for me, and neither did going into "GET INFO" and playing around with the file's permissions.

 

[Macky-Mac]

It doesn't, but restarting does.

I have had that bug pop up twice since I installed Tiger. You can try editing the name, but once the name is highlighted and you start typing, nothing happens. Repairing permissions did nothing for me, and neither did going into "GET INFO" and playing around with the file's permissions.

and after restarting, it went back to working fine?