Bluetooth and Mighty Mouse on Mac Pro - problems and solution

On Sep 27, 2006, at 10:12 AM, Kirk McElhearn wrote:
> I've written up a tale of woe and, well, stupidity on Apple's part:
>
> http://www.mcelhearn.com/article.php?story=20060916101324441

Kirk,

I went and read your article, just to see if it might possibly have
any bearing on my troubles using a BT mouse and keyboard while also
using a BT headset on my Mac Mini Core Duo. (Apparently not. I
think I'm just overloading BT with too much traffic.) While I was
there I also read your article on the USB extension cord that comes
with their keyboard. It *is* strange. I can't think of a reason why
they would do it, but perhaps there is one. But you mentioned that
you prefer a Microsoft keyboard. I don't have their ergonomic
keyboard, but I have a fairly plain MS USB keyboard, but without the
Command keys I find it entirely inadequate. How do you manage? Is
there a secret to assigning such keys that I'm not aware of? Thanks.

Geoff Odhner

On 28 Sep 2006, at 12:42 , Geoffrey Odhner wrote:
> While I was
> there I also read your article on the USB extension cord that comes
> with their keyboard. It *is* strange. I can't think of a reason why
> they would do it, but perhaps there is one.

Sure there is.

Can you think of any advantage to having a shorter cord? For
example, my logitech trackman has a very long cord. 6 feet or
something stupid like that. It sits about 1/3 of an inch from my
keyboard, and so the cord needs to be, oh, 6 inches long. It's 12
times that, so it drags hangs down off the desk, gets caught in
drawers, and gets in the way.

Long cord != better.

With a short cord, you can connect to, say, the USB hub in your flat
panel display and not have several extra feet of cord winding its way
over your desk.

As for why the Apple extension cord is for the Apple keyboards only,
that's because most keyboards (well, my info on this is old and comes
from G3 B&W days so perhaps things are better now) don't work with an
extension cord. However, the mac pro, like the g4 towers before it,
NEED that cord if you want to connect the keyboard to the back of the
machine, so it's specifically built for the Apple keyboard. And this
isn't new, the same was true for my Gigabit Ethernet machine, and I
think for my blue and white G3.

> I have a fairly plain MS USB keyboard, but without the Command keys
> I find it entirely inadequate. How do you manage? Is there a
> secret to assigning such keys that I'm not aware of? Thanks.

Er...

Windows key = Command, alt key = option. What are you talking about?

--
Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see

On Sep 28, 2006, at 8:42 PM, Geoffrey Odhner wrote:

> But you mentioned that
> you prefer a Microsoft keyboard. I don't have their ergonomic
> keyboard, but I have a fairly plain MS USB keyboard, but without the
> Command keys I find it entirely inadequate. How do you manage? Is
> there a secret to assigning such keys that I'm not aware of? Thanks.

In Tiger, in the Keyboard preferences, you can change the keys that
are sent to the system for the control, option and command keys (and
the caps lock). So you don't even need a driver any more.


Kirk
               Co-author of: Mastering Mac OS X - Tiger Edition
                    http://www.mcelhearn.com/tiger.html
                - - - - - -
              Read my blog: Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
           Musings, Opinion and Miscellanea, on Macs, iPods and more

On Sep 28, 2006, at 6:13 PM, Google Kreme wrote:
> On 28 Sep 2006, at 12:42 , Geoffrey Odhner wrote:
>> I have a fairly plain MS USB keyboard, but without the Command
>> keys I find it entirely inadequate. How do you manage? Is there
>> a secret to assigning such keys that I'm not aware of? Thanks.
>
> Er...
>
> Windows key = Command, alt key = option. What are you talking about?

It wasn't working that way for me, which is why I ended up getting
the Apple keyboard with this extension cable we're talking about.
(My Mini came with a Bluetooth keyboard, but that gets poor response
when I'm using a Bluetooth headset.) It seems to me I also had
trouble with the function keys, but it's been a while, and I've
forgotten.

Geoff Odhner

On 9/28/06 11:42 AM, "Geoffrey Odhner" <GeoffreyOdhner.net> wrote:

> But you mentioned that
> you prefer a Microsoft keyboard. I don't have their ergonomic
> keyboard, but I have a fairly plain MS USB keyboard, but without the
> Command keys I find it entirely inadequate. How do you manage? Is
> there a secret to assigning such keys that I'm not aware of? Thanks.

I _do_ have Microsoft's ergonomic keyboard, wireless, and I love it. I'm not
sure what model you have, but you probably need Microsoft's software for
their keyboards, Intellitype. That is what you use to assign functions to
keys. On mine, for instance, it comes pre-set to reposition Option and
Command to the positions they have on Mac keyboards. If you visit this URL
it will help you download the correct version for your keyboard, if one
exists for the Mac.

<http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/Download.mspx>

--
<watson.allencomcast.net>
Scripts for OE and Entourage:
<http://homepage.mac.com/allen_a_watson/AppleScripts_For_You>
Entourage questions: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>

On Sep 29, 2006, at 8:58 PM, Allen Watson wrote:

>> But you mentioned that
>> you prefer a Microsoft keyboard. I don't have their ergonomic
>> keyboard, but I have a fairly plain MS USB keyboard, but without the
>> Command keys I find it entirely inadequate. How do you manage? Is
>> there a secret to assigning such keys that I'm not aware of? Thanks.
>
> I _do_ have Microsoft's ergonomic keyboard, wireless, and I love
> it. I'm not
> sure what model you have, but you probably need Microsoft's
> software for
> their keyboards, Intellitype. That is what you use to assign
> functions to
> keys. On mine, for instance, it comes pre-set to reposition Option and
> Command to the positions they have on Mac keyboards. If you visit
> this URL
> it will help you download the correct version for your keyboard, if
> one
> exists for the Mac.

It's not Intel-compatible.


Kirk
           Author of: The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood
                      http://www.mcelhearn.com/unix.html
                - - - - - -
              Read my blog: Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
           Musings, Opinion and Miscellanea, on Macs, iPods and more

On 9/30/06 5:11 PM, "Kirk McElhearn" <kirklistswanadoo.fr> wrote:

>> I _do_ have Microsoft's ergonomic keyboard, wireless, and I love
>> it. I'm not
>> sure what model you have, but you probably need Microsoft's
>> software for
>> their keyboards, Intellitype. That is what you use to assign
>> functions to
>> keys. On mine, for instance, it comes pre-set to reposition Option and
>> Command to the positions they have on Mac keyboards. If you visit
>> this URL
>> it will help you download the correct version for your keyboard, if
>> one
>> exists for the Mac.
>
> It's not Intel-compatible.
>
Sure it is. I'm using it on a Macbook! I had to download the Intel-ready
version, but it was available for my Wireless Natural Multimedia Keyboard.
--
<watson.allencomcast.net>
Scripts for OE and Entourage:
<http://homepage.mac.com/allen_a_watson/AppleScripts_For_You>
Entourage questions: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>

On Oct 3, 2006, at 5:49 PM, Allen Watson wrote:
> On 9/30/06 5:11 PM, "Kirk McElhearn" <kirklistswanadoo.fr> wrote:
>
>>> I _do_ have Microsoft's ergonomic keyboard, wireless, and I love
>>> it. I'm not
>>> sure what model you have, but you probably need Microsoft's
>>> software for
>>> their keyboards, Intellitype. That is what you use to assign
>>> functions to
>>> keys. On mine, for instance, it comes pre-set to reposition
>>> Option and
>>> Command to the positions they have on Mac keyboards. If you visit
>>> this URL
>>> it will help you download the correct version for your keyboard, if
>>> one
>>> exists for the Mac.
>>
>> It's not Intel-compatible.
>>
> Sure it is. I'm using it on a Macbook! I had to download the Intel-
> ready
> version, but it was available for my Wireless Natural Multimedia
> Keyboard.

The compatibility depends on what keyboard you're trying to download
the software for. They have the Mac-Intel version for some, but not
for others. For the Internet Keyboard that I have they don't have
any Macintosh software at all.

Geoff Odhner

On 10/4/06 3:32 PM, "Geoffrey Odhner" <GeoffreyOdhner.net> wrote:

> The compatibility depends on what keyboard you're trying to download
> the software for. They have the Mac-Intel version for some, but not
> for others. For the Internet Keyboard that I have they don't have
> any Macintosh software at all.

That's so. To their credit, if you look at the keyboards on the Microsoft
site, they do identify some as Mac compatible and others have no such
notice. Of course the keyboards all work on a Mac (all the USB and bluetooth
ones, at least; once I mistakenly bought one that came only with a PS2
connector!), but only select ones have Mac software for configuring the keys
and assigning things to Function keys.

I'm just pleasantly surprised that Microsoft has produced one keyboard
specifically for the Mac, complete with Mac-specific key labels and layout.
--
<watson.allencomcast.net>
Scripts for OE and Entourage:
<http://homepage.mac.com/allen_a_watson/AppleScripts_For_You>
Entourage questions: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>

My new MacBook Pro developed a problem in which the trackpad could move the arrow but clicking on what it was pointing to had no effect. Had to force restart to get out of this immnobilization of the ability to click.

Our technical person here found that the problem could be solved by turning off Bluetooth that was picking up the signal from my Mighty Mouse. Somehow this was preventing clicking with the touchpad on the keyboard.

I thought this troubleshooting tip might be of interest to others.