Keyboard characters jumbled

On or about 2/15/08 3:55 AM, thus spake "Mr. Kerchak"
<mr.kerchakearthlink.net>:

> eMac OS 10.3.9
>
> I created a separate account for my 3 yr old, so she wouldn't keep screwing
> with my stuff. After a few weeks I found I couldn't switch to my account
> because it wouldn't accept my password. Turns out what I was typing wasn't
> what was coming up on screen. For instance, when I type 'w' it comes up 'z'.
>
> It's only when I'm in her account. I've tried deleting the account & creating
> a new one, but the problem remains. I even tried switching keyboards, but no
> dice.
>
> Anyone ever hear of this?

You've fallen into a French keyboard layout (or similar). Choose the US
layout from the Input menu (use International sys prefs to enable it if
necessary). m.

--
matt neuburg, phd = matttidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
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It sounds like your daughter changed her keyboard input to the French keyboard.

The easiest way to fix this is to open up the System Preferences, go
to the keyboard input, find the language tab, and display the keyboard
on the menubar. It will display an American flag when the U.S.
keyboard is selected and a French flag when the French keyboard is
selected, etc.

You can also select what keyboards you want access to. I've turned off
all the various keyboards except for the Hebrew keyboard and the U.S.
standard keyboard. I also went to the keyboard shortcuts and changed
the shortcut to select the keyboard to something that doesn't conflict
with Spotlight (Ctrl-Space). You can also shut off the keyboard
shortcut entirely (which isn't a bad idea).

If you don't need another keyboard, unselect all the options except
for the U.S. keyboard.

--
David Weintraub
qazwartgmail.com

She has probably just changed keyboard to the French "AZERTY"-style.
There is an unfortunate easy way to change keyboards using just cmd-
space that can be changed using the Mouse and Keyboard System
Preferences. Have a look at the flag in the menu bar to see if that is
the case.

best,

Kim

Den 15/02/2008 kl. 12.55 skrev Mr. Kerchak:

> For instance, when I type 'w' it comes up 'z'.

--On February 15, 2008 3:55:48 AM -0800 "Mr. Kerchak"
<mr.kerchakearthlink.net> wrote:

> It's only when I'm in her account. I've tried deleting the account &
> creating a new one, but the problem remains. I even tried switching
> keyboards, but no dice.
>
> Anyone ever hear of this?

many times. first time i saw it was on an Apple //c when someone had pushed
in the the Dvorak/QWERTY keyboard button (still don't know why those
shipped with that button, seems a weird expense).

This is instructions from 10.5 so it might be slightly different on 10.3.

Open System Preferences
Open International panel
click the Input Menu tab
Disable the keyboard layouts except US (assuming that's the one you want).
You can turn on the Show input menu in the menu bar if you want, it might
help troubleshoot.

When you created a new account did you give it the same name? That can
make it hold the same preferences as before.

BTW, I think with Parental Controls you can disable some of that
functionality on accounts (hmmm, can't remember when those got beefed up.)

Thanks everyone, even though I'm sure I unchecked everything but US & it still didn't work, it worked when I created a new account & did the same.

How come my main account can have French & US checked with never a problem?

System Preferences->accounts->limitations What app do I have to allow to uncompress a dl'ed file? I tried to update camino in her account. I could dl the img file but couldn't open it. Only by un-checking 'This user can only use these applications' could I do it.