Three problems with highlighting and typing over text.

[Whisker]

I've been having a few odd problems with typing on the MacBook in the last few months, and wondering whether anybody had any ideas, or similar experiences. It's a Unibody alu, and the problems have existed as long as it has. I don't think they're keyboard issues, but something happening in its demented brain:

a) MS Word: I've noticed that if I select a piece of text to type over, when I type the new word it's often missing the first letter. For example, if I want to change "Dog" to "Cat", I highlight "Dog" and type "Cat", but what actually appears on the screen is "at", minus the C.

b) Safari: Another problem with highlighting, which I'm noticing in Safari, e.g. when typing up a blog post. If I select some text to replace and then start typing, it not only replaces the text selected, but the same number of letters again. For example, if I have "Dog Joe Egg" and I select "Dog" and type "Cat", Safari deletes "Dog", then jumps ahead and deletes "Joe", so I end up with just "Cat Egg". Intermittent, most noticeable on Wordpress.

c) Copying text: I'm noticing this primarily in Word again, but I think it happens elsewhere too. Sometimes (usually, even) it just doesn't pick up when I've hit Apple-C to copy, and I keep finding myself pasting old clipboard material, rather than the last thing I tried to pick up. This is exactly as annoying as you can imagine it to be, and probably happens more often than not.

Well, there you go. Any ideas?

 

[mysterytramp]

c) Copying text: I'm noticing this primarily in Word again, but I think it happens elsewhere too. Sometimes (usually, even) it just doesn't pick up when I've hit Apple-C to copy, and I keep finding myself pasting old clipboard material, rather than the last thing I tried to pick up. This is exactly as annoying as you can imagine it to be, and probably happens more often than not.

I've seen this, too, but usually it's in a flaky app. Of course, some people would say a Microsoft product qualifies as a flaky app.

Maybe the option or shift key is a wee bit sticky and a command-C is being read as command-option-C and new text isn't being copied.

I wonder if there isn't a conflict in the Services menu. As cool as the Services menu is, I'm very distrustful of something that gets installed without my say-so.

mt

 

[ewilson6]

What do you have running when your computer starts up?

There might be an application like USB Overdrive that is interfering with your Applications!

--Eric

 

[Whisker]

Thanks to you both - I'll look into your suggestions.