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01 Apr 08 - 06:51 PM (#2303892) Subject: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Art Thieme I have inadvertently pressed a button somewhere--and now, whenever I try to insert a word or a phrase into a sentence that is already there, it ERASES what was there already. What did I do to make this happen? How do I reverse it back again?? Art |
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01 Apr 08 - 06:52 PM (#2303895) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Becca72 Art, hit the "insert" button...in the middle between letter keys and number pad, above your arrow keys. |
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01 Apr 08 - 06:55 PM (#2303898) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Peace Dang. I thought it was just me. Thanks, Becca. What's an insert button? |
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01 Apr 08 - 06:56 PM (#2303900) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Amos The insert key switches you between "insert" and "overwrite" modes. In overwrite, a new letter overwrites the one juts in front of the cursor. In "insert" mode it inserts a new letter at the cursor without removing anything already on the line. A |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:00 PM (#2303905) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Becca72 yeah, what Amos said. |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:03 PM (#2303914) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Peace Is it on the screen or on the keyboard? |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:04 PM (#2303915) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Joe Offer Now, Amos, if you could learn to say "The insert key toggles between 'insert' and 'overwrite' modes," you could sound like a genuine computer geek. But Mac users don't talk that language, do they? [grin] -Joe- |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:06 PM (#2303917) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Peace 's it do?I just found a button on the keyboard that says Insert. Neat. Whats |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:09 PM (#2303925) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Geoff the Duck Peace - On standard PC keyboard layout it is somewhere near the "Delete" key (also near the "Page up" and "Page Down" ones). Quack! GtD. |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:11 PM (#2303927) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Peace Thank you, Geoff. |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:13 PM (#2303930) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Geoff the Duck S'okay. Long time since I last pressed it. Quack! Geoff. |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:13 PM (#2303932) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Beer Thank you all. I had the same problem and couldn't figure it out. Beer (adrien) |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:19 PM (#2303937) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Bert OK Joe, What's the difference between switches and toggles? |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:22 PM (#2303940) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Bill D I have (as you might expect) a program that warns me when I have accidently hit either the 'insert' key or the capslock. FirstCap..free |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:28 PM (#2303948) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Jeri If you inserted the insert button, please remove it before we have to get the trained gerbils. A toggle is either on or off. It can be a switch, but a switch can have more positions than on/off and sometimes looks like a button instead of a lever. |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:29 PM (#2303950) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: GUEST Switches - changes between two or more alternatives. Toggles switches between two alternatives Stu |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:32 PM (#2303955) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Peace This is a good thread. I just noticed I have these buttons up top: F1, F2, etc. Neat. And this new keyboard has the ampersand over the number 8. Same as always. There's also another button which WHOA! Talk about yer heavy vibes, man. |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:37 PM (#2303964) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Becca72 Peace...my F keys all have macros assigned to them...whoa...are you impressed yet? |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:42 PM (#2303971) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Art Thieme Well, Now I see. Thanks to all! Art |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:44 PM (#2303974) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Peace Macros? Wasn't he a political leader in the Philippines? His wife was, too. But how'd that end up on your computer? |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:47 PM (#2303979) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Peace Clears it up for this kid. "macro Last modified: Friday, June 27, 2003 (1) A symbol, name, or key that represents a list of commands, actions, or keystrokes. Many programs allow you to create macros so that you can enter a single character or word to perform a whole series of actions. Suppose, for example, that you are editing a file and want to indent every third line five spaces. If your word processor supports macros, you can create one that consists of the following keystrokes: Move Cursor to Beginning of Line Move Cursor Down 1 Line Move Cursor Down 1 Line Move Cursor Down 1 Line Insert 5 Spaces Now you can enter the name of the macro, and the word processor will perform all these commands at once. You can also use macros to enter words or phrases that you use frequently. For example, you could define a macro to contain all the keystrokes necessary to begin a letter -- your name, address, and a code that inserts the current date. Then, whenever you write a letter, you just press the macro key to include the letter header. In a way, macros are like simple programs or batch files. Some applications support sophisticated macros that even allow you to use variables and flow control structures such as loops. (2) In dBASE programs, a macro is a variable that points to another variable where the data is actually stored. In most other applications, this would be called a link. " |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:53 PM (#2303989) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Bill D cartoon...guy in water up to his chest, seemingly in trouble....30 ft. away is his laptop computer on the beach. The guy is shouting: "F1-F1-F1!" |
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01 Apr 08 - 07:54 PM (#2303990) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Don Firth Yup. I found out fairly early on about the Insert/Overwrite key when I'd try to insert something and what I typed ate what was already there. Trial and error. Lots of error. Kinda reminds me of Mrs. Slocum, who, for seventeen years in a row, walked down from the mountain to the little township clinic where she delivered her new—seventeenth—baby. When the nurse bundled up the baby and put it into her arms for her trek back up the mountain, she said, "Well, I guess we'll see you again next year, eh, Mrs. Slocum?" Emphatically, Mrs. Slocum said, "Nope!" "Oh?" said the nurse, "you're not going to have any more children?" "Nope!" said Mrs. Slocum. "We finally figgered out what was doin' it!" Don Firth |
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01 Apr 08 - 08:38 PM (#2304025) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Amos Joe: I have been a computer instructor for many years, and I learned that "toggles" is a geek word which makes the unindoctrinated feel stupid. And since I know Art is very smart, I didn't see any reason to make him fel otherwise. If I had been writing to you, I would have said "toggles". ;>) A |
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01 Apr 08 - 10:15 PM (#2304108) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: JohnInKansas Windows possibles: If you have one of the "specialty" keyboards, like the Microsoft Business keyboard that came with my computer, your computer probably boots with the "F" keys assigned to Help, Office Home, Task Pane, New, Open, Close, Reply, Fwd, Send, Spell, Save, Print, Undo, Redo. You'll have an "F Lock" key that you can press to turn on an indicator light that means the keys do the normal F1, F2, ... etc. But you'll also need to hit the NumLock button (which is labelled "Tab" on the Num Pad) to get the Num Pad to work, and if you don't do that, then the PrtScn button is actually an open-parens "(" which is sort of useless in that location so far as I can see. A secondary row of buttons at the top lets you open Word, Excel, your browser, email, calender, Files, calculator, mute your speaker, or adjust the volume, log off, or put the machine to sleep, with each action needing only a single button push. There may also be a "scroll wheel" built in, usually on the left, with Fwd and Back buttons, Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons, and a Fwd/Back "Applications" button that acts like a Ctl-Tab/Shift-Ctl-Tab for switching between windows. The scroll wheel and Applications button both work nicely to transport you to random places when the cat tries to demand petting while you're at work, or when you move the book you're copying from and bump one accidentally. I wonder if anyone ever actually uses all (or any of) that crap. Of course since a recent (month ago) Microsoft update to the default mouse driver forces loading of the new "default" driver, none of the buttons work unless you open the "Microsoft Keyboard" program (which doesn't appear at keyboard in Ctl Panel) and "Reset" after each reboot. Hooray for progress. (Sure hope Art never sees one of them newfanglicated keyboards.) John |
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01 Apr 08 - 10:35 PM (#2304123) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Stilly River Sage Toggle switch. Toggle knot or closure. Toggle (on your sleeping bag bag). The Insert button problem is subtle compared to the CAPS LOCK problem. It's an error I don't make as often so is bound to be more of a surprise. |
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01 Apr 08 - 11:36 PM (#2304169) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Art Thieme Don, Remember what Groucho said to a woman on his show who had 15 kids. She said, "Groucho, I like kids!" Groucho told her, "I like my cigar, but I take it out once in a while!!!!!" Art |
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01 Apr 08 - 11:39 PM (#2304173) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Peace LOL |
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02 Apr 08 - 02:09 AM (#2304210) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: pavane Are you sure this thread is GENUINE? Look at the date. |
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02 Apr 08 - 02:46 AM (#2304218) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Mr Red Macros? Now are we talking about keystroke recorders or are we talking proper programming like JavaScript or VB or really nerdy stuff like C++? I smell keystrokes call them macros? Wimps the lot of you. |
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02 Apr 08 - 03:19 AM (#2304227) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Megan L The difference between switches and toggles thats easy if the person uses the word toggles the bill will be about £150 dearer :) |
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02 Apr 08 - 11:08 AM (#2304504) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Bat Goddess A million years ago, pre-personal computers, when I was using Varityper proprietary computerized typesetting equipment, I had one of the F keys ("Function" ) programmed to print on the screen "Please don't push that button again." Then I'd finagle non-computer types to push that button. Prolly scared 'em away from computers when they finally started landing in homes and workplaces. Linn |
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02 Apr 08 - 11:58 AM (#2304536) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: JohnInKansas A couple of different "concepts" are being mixed together in this discussion. Quite likely most people don't really need to know the difference, but ... In most Windows versions, you can assign keys or key combinations to do just about anything that can be done by clicking through a series of steps on menus. This just gives you a "quick key" combination to run an existing command function. A similar feature allows you to add functions to existing toolbars, or to create your own toolbars and choose which "buttons" to put on them, so that you can click once to get a "command" that would other wise require boring down through a sequence of steps on multiple levels of a menu. The "quick keys" and "toolbar customizing" features are most useful in Microsoft Office programs like Word. They have (almost) nothing to do with "macros," and should be referred to as just "shortcuts." In Office programs (even in DOS versions) you can click on tools|macros and click "record." The keystrokes you do after the "record" button is turned on are recorded and the sequence can be saved as a "macro" so that they will be repeated automatically whenever the macro is run. More complex things, that can't be done from the keyboard alone, could be inserted into a macro by just typing the commands in, in "macro edit" mode. Once a macro has been created, you can put a button on a toolbar or assign a quick-key combination to run that macro. Since the discovery of the "macro virus" potential, Office updates have significantly "crippled" your ability to use macros, although until Office 2007 they remained useful if you managed to figure out how to turn off the "macro blocking" that has appeared. Help files for Vista and for Office 2007 state, ambiguously, that you are no longer permitted to change (some or all?) toolbars or to create macros in Office programs(?). The "macro function" still exists (and appears in Word 2007 if you're clever enough to find it), but Help "says" (as nearly as the term can be used) that you can't do it. According to the Help file, and info(?) at Microsoft web sites, you apparently have to write (and compile?) a program - which seems to require purchasing one or more program language packages, to do it. As Office 2007 and Vista help files appear all to have been written by advertising department executives (probably with the help of a crew of faith healers), it will be necessary to wait until a competent computer person again penetrates the Microsoft management hierarchy to tell whether anything useful can still be done with either of these programs. John |
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02 Apr 08 - 12:46 PM (#2304596) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Folkiedave I just assumed the original poster was having an April Fool's joke. Sorry Art. When Students used to do this in the learning centre I used to get them to say the magic ward Abracadabra as I waved my hands over the keyboard. Secretly touching the insert key as I did so. "Try it again" I used to say. "Magic". |
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02 Apr 08 - 09:54 PM (#2305079) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: GUEST,Ravenheart John, that's horrible news. I hope I'm never obliged to use Office 2007, as I would be crippled professionally without all the macros I've evolved. Maybe OpenOffice or some such thing will prove to be compatible, or is there some sort of file format converter? |
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02 Apr 08 - 11:42 PM (#2305141) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Stilly River Sage I used to use Macros all of the time in earlier programs, and when I had WordStar it was a great feature. I've gotten out of the habit, but I could save myself some time if I went back to them. Thanks for the info, John. SRS |
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03 Apr 08 - 12:16 AM (#2305150) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: open mike IS THIS LIKE THE HOT KEY OR THE HOT WIRE? oh i had a "certain" key turned on...(caps lock) my apersand is over the 7 key... but that reminds me, i once was having some checks printed and I explained to the printer that i wanted my e-mail address included in the printed info. I said i wanted an "at" sign, then i said, you know, the one above the two. so they printed 1/2 and thought that they had done the one above the two....sheesh.... |
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03 Apr 08 - 12:27 AM (#2305156) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: open mike the eight has an asterisk is this the same as being AT risk>? the insert/delete keys on my key board are near the home/end keys as well as the page up and down. i like it when key boards put the back space and delete keys close to each other..it makes sense. |
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03 Apr 08 - 01:56 AM (#2305184) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: JohnInKansas Please note that the information I found in Vista/Office 2007 about macros is almost certainly a reflection of the incompetent documentation about features of both Vista and Office 2007. At first exploring them, I found multiple instances of "you can't do that." In several places, I found statements that you can't modify toolbars, BUT in Word 2007 there still is a place to "Customize" Word, and it appears to allow you to create new toolbars, and to add and remove icons from them. Help file info stated quite specifically that macros are not permitted; but there is a place in Word 2007 where you can record a macro by recording keystrokes, and there is a macro edit button. There also are separate file formats for "Word 2007 documents" (.docx) and for "Word 2007 documents with macros" (.docm). There are separate formats for document templates, .dotx and .dotm, depending on whether macros are included in them. These would not exist if the statement that "you can't use macros" was really true. My interpretation of what I've found is that OFFICE 2007 CAN DO ANYTHING ANY PREVIOUS OFFICE VERSION COULD DO, but Microsoft has assumed all users are idiots and shouldn't be told how to do anything "complicated." They've thus buried the useful information "so the poor idiots won't get hurt." I expect to find that Office 2007 is pretty good. The DOCUMENTATION for users in Office 2007 is an insult to me, and to most here, and reflects incompetent assumptions by Microsoft about who will use the programs and what they need to do with it. NO SENIOR MANAGER who was directly associated with Vista remains at Microsoft. There is hope for eventual sanity, - - - maybe.(?) John |
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03 Apr 08 - 02:55 AM (#2305202) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: JohnInKansas KEYBOARD LAYOUTS: Windows Keyboard Layouts Note that this page indicates that you must use Internet Explorer, and you must turn off popup blockers or put the site in your trusted sites list in IE. (The page is in .mspx format) When you choose one of the 118 keyboard layouts, a popup appears showing the keys on the keyboard selected. If you hover your mouse pointer over the Shift key, and on some keyboards the Alt-Gr key, the shifted keys are displayed. The popup window can't be resized, so you may have to use the zoom control at the bottom right to drop back to about 75% zoom to fit the whole keyboard in the popup window. The page cannot (so far as I've found) be saved for offsite reference. You may be able to save a "screen capture" (Alt-PrtScn) of the popup box, but I haven't tried it. Windows contains a number of optional alternate keyboard layouts that you can choose to use, regardless of what physical keyboard you have. If you choose a layout that doesn't match the labels on your keys, I would expect some difficulties unless you are an exceedingly fluent touch-typist in the language chosen. How to: How to change your keyboard layout Some language/keyboard effects are affected by the Language chosen for your Windows setup. Information on available languages is at: List of languages supported in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 STANDARD/DEFAULT SHORT CUT KEYS: List of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP If you've never looked at this, it might be of interest - and a bit of a surprise. These are only the defaults. You can add your own too. John |
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03 Apr 08 - 05:15 PM (#2305852) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: JohnInKansas open mike - Mary had a little car Her driving was quite brisk But Mary didn't worry 'cause She only had her * SRS - Many of the things one might have used macros for in earlier word proceessors are built into recent Word, if you use the Tools - Options, Customize, and Autocorrect/Autoreplace functions. In the "automatically replace as you type" setting, you can set up a replacement text that will be inserted when you type a short sequence, just as you previously might have put the longer text in by running a macro. Typing something like "insplead" could be instantly replaced by pages of "pleading boiler plate" that's in all your documents, with no need to type it each time. (Every law office/legal typist will have set "automatically replace 'trail' with 'trial'" for an obvious, if trivial, example.) If you use the "automatically correct caps lock errors," it might appear that you'd have to "correct all the miscorrections" to type a corporate "name" like BAe, which is supposed to be two initial caps, but if you put "replace Bae with BAe" into autoreplace, when the caps lock thing changes your BAe to Bae the autoreplace puts it back to BAe and you never see the "flicker." You just have to be aware of the order in which the auto functions are applied. About the only macro I use with any regularity is the "ANSI Val" one that I picked up years ago. In my Word, if I highlight a character (or sequence of them) and click the button on my toolbar, it displays the ANSI/ASCII numerical value for each of the selected characters, one at a time. Very handy for checking whether the "soft break" in something you copied from html is the 011 or 031 char (both are used some) so that you can use replace ^011 with ^p or replace ^031 with ^p to put real paragraph breaks in - if you want to, avoiding the need to remember all ^b, ^l,^m, ^n etc standard Word "search chars." I've put off converting it to return Unicode char values, so it ony sometimes reports correct values for really strange chars on some furring websites, but I suppose it could be done. I also haven't tried putting it on my Vista machine as a toolbar button ... yet. John |
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03 Apr 08 - 05:22 PM (#2305862) Subject: RE: Tech: spacing forward erases letters--WHY?? From: Bill D "Mary had a little plane, And in it she would frisk. But when she flew it upside down, Her little *. " |