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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Keyboard Viewing

little_red - May 3, 2005 - 10:57 pm

Hello,

I am a newbie. I have a G4 dual processor running OS X
10.3.9.

I am trying to use the keyboard in English and in Spanish. I
follow all of the instructions from MacHelp to the letter and
they work until the last step.

When I use the pull-down menu from the main menu bar in
order to "Show Keyboard Viewer" the keyboard comes up on the
screen for a second or two and then disappears so I can never
really see the accent keys. Then whenever I do any kind of
operation, like change from one window to another for instance,
the keyboard comes up for a second and disappears.

I have gone through all of the help files on the subject with no
success.

How do I get the Keyboard Viewer to come up and stay up?

Thank you.

Richard

earthsaver - May 7, 2005 - 11:08 pm

Richard -

I haven't a clue about where to start, however I wonder what happens if you use an AppleScript that tells the system to display the Keyboard Viewer. You can download KeyViewer for this purpose:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23422

- Ben

little_red - May 8, 2005 - 12:46 am

Dear Ben,

I tried the keyboard viewer from VersionTracker and it is nice software
but the same thing happens.

Any other ideas?

Thank you very much.

Richard

earthsaver - May 8, 2005 - 9:26 am

I'm curious if the same thing happens when you show the Character Palette. Also, have you tried removing the Input Menu Extra from the menubar and returning to International prefs to put it back?

Did this problem start only when you decided to try to activate the menu for the first time? Did you run any updates in between?

- Ben

little_red - May 8, 2005 - 12:45 pm

Hello,

I have not done any updates since trying to display the keyboard. I am at the
most recent update which is 10.3.9.

I have never tried to display the keyboard before this. I am trying to learn
Spanish and communicate with friends in South America.

There is no problem whatsoever with displaying the special characters
pallette. It comes up and stays up and I can move from set to set.

I don;t know what you mean when you say "remove the input menu extra
from the menubar". I am a little green at this.

Thank you.

Richard

earthsaver - May 8, 2005 - 4:01 pm

You can hold Command to drag the Menu Extras around that right portion of the menubar, and you can drag them off the bar to remove them. Regardless, you can go to the International preference pane in System Preferences to show or hide the Input menu.

If that doesn't help, or if it doesn't help to remove Keyboard Viewer from the Input menu and then put it back (also in International prefs), I suggest logging into another user—creating one if you have to—and trying the Keyboard Viewer there.

If this works, try trashing the Keyboard Viewer preferences file. In your Home/Library/Preferences folder, trash com.apple.KeyboardViewerServer.plist. Any change?

- Ben

little_red - May 8, 2005 - 4:52 pm

Hello,

I removed the Menu Extras from the menu bar. Then I trashed
/Home/Library/Preferences/Keyboard (by mistake) and rebooted and tried
everything again. The first time I tried the keyboard displayed for 10
seconds and then disappeared again and then reverted to the two second
business.

Then I replaced /Home/Library/Preferences/Keyboard and restored the Menu
Extras and reading your instructions more carefully trashed
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.KeyboardViewerServer.plist and
tried again with no change so I will have to learn how to create a new user
and get back to you.

Thank you ever so much.

Richard

little_red - May 8, 2005 - 5:08 pm

Ben,

I found that I did have a test account from when I first brought the system
up.

I logged in to it and tried the keyboard viewer and it worked.

I then logged off and back onto my account and tried again with /Home/
Library/Preferences/com.apple.Keyboard/viewServer.plist romoved and it
was the same old thing, there for two seconds and gone.

I usually don't touch those files or even change preferences much so I am
not doing something exotic. Strictly vanilla.

Do you have any other ideas? I hope I am not asking too much of you.

Thank you very much.

Richard

earthsaver - May 8, 2005 - 6:11 pm

You will find trying to ask me too much quite a challenge. This is my passion.

Hmm. Other ideas. Well, clearly, there is a problem at Home, because the viewer worked for another user. So, let's see. I'm on my way to dinner. I'll be back later this evening (EDT) and give it some more thought. I don't think the solution is too far away.

- Ben

little_red - May 9, 2005 - 7:03 pm

Ben,

I have thought about the problem. The only thing I have ever done on this
system is install software and then use it. Mostly things like the Adobe
publishing programs. Since we know it is not something in the system, it has
to be something in my home directory. The only thing I have ever done
there is set preferences. Do you think it would be a good idea to remove
preference files one by one and test the keyboard display after each one to
see which was the culprit?

If you think this is a good idea, how do I identify the preference files and
which preferences they are associated with? Am I correct in guessing that
the preferences files will be renewed if I merely go to the systems preferences
pane and set preferences?


Thank you very much.

Richard

earthsaver - May 9, 2005 - 7:13 pm

The files in your Preferences folder store your preferences not only for the System but also for all of your applications. The ones pertaining to the System, however, will be easy to track down because they'll start with com.apple. And, of course, you'll recognize most of their names based on the preference panes you've set.

However, I think a better use of your time might be to download and run Preferential Treatment, and let this utility figure out if there are problems among these files.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22790

- Ben

little_red - May 9, 2005 - 11:45 pm

Well Ben,

Another blind alley.

I ran PreferentialTeatment with administrator privileges on my personal
preferences and on the system preferences and found nothing wrong.

Is there a preference that could produce a short viewing time for some
displays that could check still check our well?

Any other guesses.

Thank you very much.

Richard

earthsaver - May 9, 2005 - 11:50 pm

The only one that comes to mind is com.apple.windowserver, but that's in your main library and would be the same for more than one user. How about com.apple.systemuiserver. That's the application that makes the menu extras work. Try tossing that from your user prefs and logout/login.

- Ben

little_red - May 10, 2005 - 12:55 am

Well Ben,

I have struck out again. Any other ideas?

Richard

earthsaver - May 10, 2005 - 6:30 am

Yes. I decided to Google your issue for a moment and discovered that others shared your conflict and one user found it to be an issue of typeface incompatibility. Specifically, it was about Adobe Garamond and Adobe Garamond Expert:
http://www.creativepro.com/talkbackr...ure/20000.html

So, first I suggest activating KV again so you can glance at what typeface it's currently using (probably Lucida Grande). Then, head over to Font Book and take some time to browse your fonts for duplicates or possible conflicts, like the one noted.

Since we know it's a problem with your user, it's something about an incompatibility among fonts in your Home Fonts folder or between one of them and one of the fonts that comes with the system.

- Ben

earthsaver - May 10, 2005 - 6:36 am

Another mention of the glitch at Apple Discussions:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/we....1@.68a6f01e/8

Seems still to be a problem with Adobe Garamond typefaces, here solved by disabling only the OS 9 ones. If you're not using Classic for anything, then you won't lose any functionality by doing this.

- Ben

little_red - May 10, 2005 - 10:33 am

Ben,

I have run into really strange things.

The only Garamond fonts I can find are in /Home/Library/Fonts

So I try removing various of them to a stash directory and find that all those
that have the name Adobe in them (five) have to be removed for the
Keyboard Viewer to work correctly.

Since there are only five, I try replacing all of the various combinations only
to find that I can replace them all and the viewer still works!!!!!

At this time I become skeptical and reboot just to see what happens and
find everything back to square one with the Keyboard Viewer not working.

So, I know what I can do to use the Keyboard Viewer and still have all of the
Adobe Garamond fonts available if I need them which will probably be the
case with using the Adobe Publisher suite.

I suppose with a number shuffles and reboots that I could hone it down
farther but that would be too much play time.

Thank you very, very much.

Is there anything I can do for you in gratitude?

Richard

earthsaver - May 10, 2005 - 10:05 pm

Do any of the Adobe Garamond fonts have the same name in Font Book?, even though they of course have different names in the Finder. (Or, do any appear to have the same name in the Finder?) You should only have to remove those with the same name, if such is the case.

I guess another way to ask is: Can you remove only one to make the viewer work? Also, you shouldn't have to restart to test; a simple logout/login ought to be sufficient.

As for expression of gratitude, well, for one thing you can recall that I didn't know where to begin the other day and really I should have Googled first and started looking at such resources as MacFixIt Forums and Apple Discussions. A good lesson for each of us.

Meanwhile, as you know macosx.com is a free site. I'd imagine I'm in violation of the rules (even if they're not established yet) if I advertise my Mac user experience consulting business. However, Mac user to Mac user, friendship is usually assumed and so I trust you with my email if you want to discuss more off site: earthsaver@mac.com.

[To the moderators of macosx.com, if you're listening, I wonder what thoughts you've had about allowing volunteers to provide contact info for themselves on a user-by-user basis.]

Thanks, Richard, for the experience!

- Ben