22 replies to this topic

[Bruce Kieffer]

Evan,

I've been searching for a utility that would add a feedback sound to audibly notify a typist that they have accidentally pressed and locked the caps lock key. No luck finding it for the Mac. Is it possible for you to add it as a feature to a future release of Spell Catcher?

[Evan Gross]

Bruce Kieffer, on Dec 4 2005, 09:25 AM, said:

Evan,

I've been searching for a utility that would add a feedback sound to audibly notify a typist that they have accidentally pressed and locked the caps lock key. No luck finding it for the Mac. Is it possible for you to add it as a feature to a future release of Spell Catcher?

I really thought that there was a utility that could do this, but a quick search on VersionTracker came up with nothing appropriate. Doesn't mean there isn't such a utility, just that I couldn't find one in 5 minutes of looking...

You CAN do this on Tiger using VoiceOver (open the VoiceOver utility, there is an option to announce when the Caps Lock key is pressed), but there doesn't seem to be a way to turn everything off so that it only announces caps lock.

Sticky Keys (Universal Access) is close - but it doesn't deal with the caps lock modifier!

Actually, this would be a trivial thing for an input method to do, as they receive events for every modifier key press. Probably only take 20 minutes to add that support to the input method. BUT that's not including any user interface - you need to be able to turn the feature on/off, and to be able to specify the sound you want to use. Yet more Spell Catcher X preferences...

How about a quick-and-dirty implementation? No UI, but a default you can set using the defaults command in the terminal, or by editing the com.rainmaker.SpellCatcher.plist file?

[Bruce Kieffer]

[quote name='Evan Gross' date='Dec 4 2005, 11:56 PM' post='3465']
[quote post='3464' date='Dec 4 2005, 09:25 AM' name='Bruce Kieffer']

How about a quick-and-dirty implementation? No UI, but a default you can set using the defaults command in the terminal, or by editing the com.rainmaker.SpellCatcher.plist file?
[/quote]

That would be fine with me, but I have no idea how to do it.

[Evan Gross]

Bruce Kieffer, on Dec 7 2005, 02:17 PM, said:

That would be fine with me, but I have no idea how to do it.

Don't worry, I'd provide instructions. Just a one-liner in the Terminal. Still thinking about it - I may be able to use the existing UI for error alerts, not sure yet...

[Bruce Kieffer]

Evan Gross, on Dec 7 2005, 10:47 PM, said:

Bruce Kieffer, on Dec 7 2005, 02:17 PM, said:

That would be fine with me, but I have no idea how to do it.

Don't worry, I'd provide instructions. Just a one-liner in the Terminal. Still thinking about it - I may be able to use the existing UI for error alerts, not sure yet...

Thanks. That would be great! I'll check back here in a day or two. You can email it to me if you want. I think you now my email address.

[Evan Gross]

Bruce Kieffer, on Dec 8 2005, 09:25 AM, said:

Thanks. That would be great! I'll check back here in a day or two. You can email it to me if you want. I think you now my email address.

It's not going to be ready in two days, but check back in a week. No guarantees, realize there are more important things I need to get right in the pre-release I'm working on (like making sure it works right on Panther still - no more Jaguar, and on my DTK Intel box).

[Bruce Kieffer]

Evan Gross, on Dec 8 2005, 10:59 PM, said:

Bruce Kieffer, on Dec 8 2005, 09:25 AM, said:

Thanks. That would be great! I'll check back here in a day or two. You can email it to me if you want. I think you now my email address.

It's not going to be ready in two days, but check back in a week. No guarantees, realize there are more important things I need to get right in the pre-release I'm working on (like making sure it works right on Panther still - no more Jaguar, and on my DTK Intel box).

Understood. Thanks.

[Evan Gross]

Bruce Kieffer, on Dec 9 2005, 09:41 PM, said:

Understood. Thanks.

Well, I have it working, and there is actually a UI (just added it to the list of "errors" in the Alerts preference pane), so no secret prefs needed.

I stole Apple's "modifier" sound used by Universal Access to use as the default.

You can listen to it by navigating to here:

/System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/Resources/SystemSounds/accessibility/

(copy and paste into the Finder's "Go" dialog, or select it and choose Services->Finder->Open).

and playing the sound named "Sticky Keys MODIFER.aif".

Now, I wonder if it should actually play by default...I can see user's that aren't aware of it getting very surprised when they hit Caps Lock...

[Bruce Kieffer]

Evan,
I'm not sure what I'm to do with the info you gave me. I can listen to the sound. I think the Alerts pref pane you refer to is in SCX. I don't think I can make a change or addition there. Please explain further how I would get this to work for me. Thanks.

[Evan Gross]

Bruce Kieffer, on Dec 12 2005, 02:21 PM, said:

Evan,
I'm not sure what I'm to do with the info you gave me. I can listen to the sound. I think the Alerts pref pane you refer to is in SCX. I don't think I can make a change or addition there. Please explain further how I would get this to work for me. Thanks.

There's nothing you can do...I'm just saying I've got this going in the beta I'm working on (nobody else has access at this point!).

I just gave you the path to the sound to listen to for your own info (and if you had any feedback), and that your "wish has been granted" in whatever the next version will be...

[Bruce Kieffer]

Evan Gross, on Dec 13 2005, 01:03 AM, said:

There's nothing you can do...I'm just saying I've got this going in the beta I'm working on (nobody else has access at this point!).

I just gave you the path to the sound to listen to for your own info (and if you had any feedback), and that your "wish has been granted" in whatever the next version will be...

Evan, I knew you could do it. I have my upgrade cash ready to plop down! As for the sound you use, I don't think it really matters as long as a user can turn the capslock feedback sound on or off.

[Evan Gross]

Bruce Kieffer, on Dec 13 2005, 08:19 AM, said:

Evan, I knew you could do it. I have my upgrade cash ready to plop down! As for the sound you use, I don't think it really matters as long as a user can turn the capslock feedback sound on or off.

Well, um, I pretty much knew I could do it too

And for those reading this thread - the upgrade to the Universal binary (PowerPC + Intel) version of Spell Catcher X 10.2 (whatever version number it actually ends up getting) will be free for those that already own version 10.2 or 10.2.1 (in other words, have a license code beginning with "X102").

[Cat]

Just thought I'd post this. I've never seen it before. Please excuse me if everyone knows about it. But you can easily disable the capslock key in Tiger at least (not sure if it works in Panther or before). Go to Preferences, Keyboard and Mouse, Keyboard pane, click Modifier keys at the bottom, click 'No Action' in the popup menu next to Caps Lock Key. That's it.

[Bruce Kieffer]

Evan,

I installed the 10.2.2b3 beta today. The Caps Lock feedback is great. Thanks. I set the sound to "Oh No"!

[Bruce Kieffer]

Bruce Kieffer, on Jan 24 2006, 08:44 AM, said:

Evan,

I installed the 10.2.2b3 beta today. The Caps Lock feedback is great. Thanks. I set the sound to "Oh No"!

Oops... Maybe I spoke too soon. I'm finding some problems with the sound playing sometimes when I have not pressed the Cap Locks key. I don't know yet what triggers that behavior. When I figure it out, I'll report back. Also, I just had the Caps Key release itself for no apparent reason and the sound played then too.

[Bruce Kieffer]

Problems of the sound being randomly triggered are happening when using FreeHand MXa (Macromedia) and pressing the command + spacebar, and command + option + spacebar. Those keyboard combinations are used to zoom in and zoom out.

[Evan Gross]

Bruce Kieffer, on Jan 24 2006, 09:57 AM, said:

Problems of the sound being randomly triggered are happening when using FreeHand MXa (Macromedia) and pressing the command + spacebar, and command + option + spacebar. Those keyboard combinations are used to zoom in and zoom out.

Those are forbidden keyboard shortcuts! No app should EVER use them!

Sadly, I hear of apps that do. They are reserved by the OS to either switch or rotate the active input source, or to open the Spotlight search field or search window.

Try this:
Open System Preferences, Keyboard and Mouse, Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Scroll down to near the bottom, make sure that BOTH the Input Menu and Spotlight shortcuts are either off completely or set to something very different than their defaults (command-space and command-option-space).

Let me know if the problem persists.

(Still, sounds a bit strange, conceivably my bug or something totally unexpected that's happening. It is a beta, after all...)

[Bruce Kieffer]

Quote

Try this:
Open System Preferences, Keyboard and Mouse, Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Scroll down to near the bottom, make sure that BOTH the Input Menu and Spotlight shortcuts are either off completely or set to something very different than their defaults (command-space and command-option-space).

Let me know if the problem persists.

MY SETTINGS WERE OFF FOR BOTH OF THOSE. As you can see I'm testing more as I write! I plan to test more with other programs and see what happens. I'll report back. THANKS!

[Bruce Kieffer]

Evan,

You should know that the problems occurred while my caps key was in the locked position. So far nothing strange happens when it's unlocked.

[Evan Gross]

Bruce Kieffer, on Jan 25 2006, 08:25 PM, said:

Evan,

You should know that the problems occurred while my caps key was in the locked position. So far nothing strange happens when it's unlocked.

OK, this is a good clue. Still not totally sure what's going on - at least not until I can reproduce it myself. Problem is, I don't have a copy of FreeHand MXa - hopefully they have a demo I can install to test with.

If there is any sort of control over these keyboard shortcuts within the FreeHand MXa app itself, perhaps see if playing with it somehow helps.

So let me get this totally straight: If caps lock is down, and you type command-space or command-option-space in FreeHand MXa, you get the "caps lock depressed" sound? And it only happens in this one app?

Here's another thing to look at: Open the Keyboard Viewer (turn it on in the input menu if necessary), reproduce the problem. Watch carefully - see if for some strange reason FreeHand is modifying the state of caps lock on its own when you do this (shot in the dark, but all I can think of to try at this moment).