I have run into a sporadic problem with a couple applications under OS 9. After opening text files in BBEdit Lite and iCab, and then closing the window and attempting to change the filenames in the Finder, I was unable to type at all. Keystrokes seemed to be being sent off into limbo, until I did something like activating another Finder window and then switching back. Anyone else encounter anything like this?

Yes. It happens to me all the time, but I'm not exactly sure how to reproduce/articulate the steps required to make it happen.

For me, it's something on the order of:

1) Drag an image file from a open folder to an alias of Photoshop contained a tabbed folder at the bottom of the screen

2) Close the document window in Photoshop with command-w (may have to be the only open document).

3) With Photoshop is still in the foreground, and without manually switching back to the Finder first, click on the open window of the Folder window that contains the image.

4) Click on the filename to rename it and try to enter text. The text will become editable, but the keystrokes don't have any effect. It seems that the mouse knows that the current application is the Finder, but the keboard doesn't. I can't even close the open folder window with Command-W. Then, clicking on the desktop itself (rather than the open folder windows) makes everything go back to normal.

I can't guarantee this is exactly how to reproduce this -- just how I remember it happening. This has happened at least since Mac OS 8.6, an possibly as early on as 8.1.

- Scott

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Scott Stevenson
Contributing Editor,
MacNN



[This message has been edited by scott (edited 12-04-1999).]

[schwei]

I've found the most reliable way to edit a filename is within the file's Get Info window, which now lets you change the filename there. Very often I'll have a Finder window set to sort by size, and the files "jump around" with the result that a file gets only three or four filename characters entered before the filename drops out of "text-edit" mode. Editing the filename after typing <<cmd-I>> is foolproof, and the characters are easier to read as well.

Scott, I noticed that my original message left out one piece of information that's similar to what you report. I forgot to mention that the way I was opening files in various apps was by dragging, in my case usually to a Button alias in a tabbed folder for a pop-up window at the bottom of the screen.

It would appear that some aspect of this is to blame for the bug. Any idea how to report this to Apple?

David