Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Where is Panther's Key Caps?

Where is Panther's Key Caps?
Thread Tools
Brass
Professional Poster
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:03 PM
 
Is it just me or has the "Key Caps" application disappeared in Panther? I need it (or at least it's functionality). How do I get the functionality of the old Key Caps in Panther?

How do I get an Elipsis? (ie, "..." as a single character in a single keystroke).

(edited to make the original question a little clearer) Even though I now have found the answers.
( Last edited by Brass; Oct 29, 2003 at 08:01 PM. )
     
BobW
Forum Regular
Join Date: Jun 2000
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:23 PM
 
From the Help Menu;

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click International.
Click Input Menu, then select the checkbox next to Keyboard Viewer.
Choose Show Keyboard Viewer from the input menu on the right side of the menu bar (the one that looks like a flag or alphabetical character).

The Keyboard Viewer shows the characters for your keyboard (or if you've selected a different keyboard layout or input method in the input menu, for the selected keyboard layout). For example, if U.S. is chosen in the input menu, you see the characters that appear on a U.S. keyboard in the Keyboard Viewer. For more information about keyboard layouts and the input menu, click "Tell me more."
To see the different accent marks that you can type highlighted in the Keyboard Viewer, press Option, Shift, or the Option and Shift keys.

The accent mark keys appear with white outlines. Depending on your keyboard, you may not need to press any of the modifier keys to see the accent keys.
Open the document where you want to type.
Press the modifier key you pressed in step 4 (Shift, Option, Option-Shift, or none) and press the key on your keyboard that is in the same place as the accent you see in the Keyboard Viewer. Then release the modifier key and press the key for the character you want to accent.

The accent key modifies the key you type next. For example, on a U.S. keyboard, to make the � appear, press Option and E (the accent key), then press E (the key on which you want that accent to appear).
     
SMacTech
Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Trafalmadore
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:25 PM
 
Originally posted by Brass:

How do I get an Elipsis? (ie, "..." as a single character in a single keystroke).
Option - semicolon will give you �
     
brink
Forum Regular
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: here and there
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:30 PM
 
It's been replaced by a floating window that you can show/hide from the input menu in the menu bar (the one that usually has a flag icon for a title). If it's not already listed in your input menu, go to the Input Menu pane in the International prefs and select "Keyboard Viewer."

It's sort of resizable now too, yay.
     
Art Vandelay
Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:30 PM
 
Do Edit > Special Characters... from any app.
Vandelay Industries
     
Tom C
Junior Member
Join Date: May 2001
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:34 PM
 
The problem with the new Keyboard Viewer is that when you type, the input goes directly into a program. With the old Key Caps, the program had its own window where you could see what you had typed; you could practice with it. I can see the new method being useful in some circumstances, but it would be nice if you could choose whether to direct the output to another program or not.

Furthermore, the behavior is a little erratic. I was typing merrily in Word with Keyboard Viewer active when a dialog popped up to let me know that a network server was disconnected. When I dismissed the dialog and resumed typing, Keyboard Viewer had somehow become the frontmost window, and every keystroke produced an annoying beep, with no text redirected to Word.
     
SMacTech
Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Trafalmadore
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:35 PM
 
Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
Do Edit > Special Characters... from any app.
The neglected menu. I never tried it, ever, until now.
     
SMacTech
Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Trafalmadore
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:41 PM
 
Originally posted by Tom C:
Furthermore, the behavior is a little erratic. I was typing merrily in Word with Keyboard Viewer active when a dialog popped up to let me know that a network server was disconnected. When I dismissed the dialog and resumed typing, Keyboard Viewer had somehow become the frontmost window, and every keystroke produced an annoying beep, with no text redirected to Word.
The application Word lost its focus for input when the server alert came up. That isn't the OS' fault.
You can easily replicate the beeps in Safari or most any Cocoa apps by type outside the focus of an input field.
The character input window is a palette and doesn't have focus and will always be on top.
The palette window doesn't respond to any keystrokes.
     
Brass  (op)
Professional Poster
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:45 PM
 
Wow, that is truly HORRIBLE! Although it looks like the Key Caps application it is not the same!

Firstly, as has already been said, you cannot try things out without typing into another application.

Secondly, I despise having the keyboard switcher in my menu bar, and there appears to be no other way to access the utility. Why should I have to add another menu to my already cluttered menu bar, just to access one item, that is in reality, an application or utility. Eg, I can still choose the "Internet Connect" application without the modem menu item.

BAD BAD design, Apple!

But thanks for the pointer... Option-; is what I needed.
     
SMacTech
Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Trafalmadore
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:48 PM
 
Originally posted by Brass:

Secondly, I despise having the keyboard switcher in my menu bar, and there appears to be no other way to access the utility.
See what Art said ^^^
     
Mithras
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: :ИOITAↃO⅃
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 06:50 PM
 
If you're really that upset about it you can use the Jaguar Key Caps.

(If you erased Jaguar, use Pacifist, etc.)
     
Brass  (op)
Professional Poster
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:14 PM
 
Originally posted by SMacTech:
See what Art said ^^^
Edit -> Special Characters... is not very helpful!

1. The Edit menu is not in every application.
2. The Edit menu is not always available (sometimes greyed out).
3. The Edit menu does not contain this command in some applications (AppleWorks).

4. This command, even when it is available and works, does NOT provide the functionality of the old Key Caps application, or even the functionality of the new "Keyboard Viewer" (at least not in any way that I can find).

Please expand on how this is supposed to help, or be as good as having a "Key Caps" application???
     
Brass  (op)
Professional Poster
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:15 PM
 
BTW, I eventually did find the application, without having to use the input menu. It is at:

/System/Library/Compononets/KeyboardViewer.component/Contents/SharedSupport/KeyboardViewerServer.app

Unfortunately, (as the "server" in the name implies) it cannot be used like a normal application. After running it once, it stays running (without any window if the window has been closed) but cannot be accessed by double clicking it's icon again. "ps" shows that it is still running.
( Last edited by Brass; Oct 29, 2003 at 07:21 PM. )
     
Mediaman_12
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Manchester,UK
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:18 PM
 
Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
Do Edit > Special Characters... from any app.
Where? In none of the apps I have tried (safari, TextEdit, Mail, Word) is there a 'Special Characters' item in the Edit menu, am I just being stupid.
     
Mithras
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: :ИOITAↃO⅃
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:23 PM
 
Originally posted by Brass:
BTW, I eventually did find the application, without having to use the input menu. It is at:
Cool!
To keep up my run of file:/// links, the direct link is
file:///System/Library/Components/Ke...ewerServer.app
     
Macfreak7
Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Macfreak7
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:26 PM
 
Originally posted by Brass:
Wow, that is truly HORRIBLE! Although it looks like the Key Caps application it is not the same!

Firstly, as has already been said, you cannot try things out without typing into another application.

Secondly, I despise having the keyboard switcher in my menu bar, and there appears to be no other way to access the utility. Why should I have to add another menu to my already cluttered menu bar, just to access one item, that is in reality, an application or utility. Eg, I can still choose the "Internet Connect" application without the modem menu item.

BAD BAD design, Apple!

DITTO!
     
Art Vandelay
Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:32 PM
 
Originally posted by Mediaman_12:
Where? In none of the apps I have tried (safari, TextEdit, Mail, Word) is there a 'Special Characters' item in the Edit menu, am I just being stupid.
It's at the bottom of the Edit menu.
Vandelay Industries
     
SMacTech
Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Trafalmadore
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:40 PM
 
Originally posted by Brass:
Edit -> Special Characters... is not very helpful!

1. The Edit menu is not in every application.
2. The Edit menu is not always available (sometimes greyed out).
3. The Edit menu does not contain this command in some applications (AppleWorks).

4. This command, even when it is available and works, does NOT provide the functionality of the old Key Caps application, or even the functionality of the new "Keyboard Viewer" (at least not in any way that I can find).

Please expand on how this is supposed to help, or be as good as having a "Key Caps" application???
Chill . . . I did mention only in Cocoa Apps. Maybe Carbons have a new API and developers have to update to support it.
It does help in providing a method for you to find what is available in OS X, the character palette. Whether it provides Key Caps drop in functionality wasn't the question.
     
ryaxnb
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Felton, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:49 PM
 
Someone with web hosting tell me on this thread, I can e-mail a zipped Key Caps (44KB, zipped with Panther Archive) to them.
Trainiable is to cat as ability to live without food is to human.
Steveis... said: "What would scammers do with this info..." talking about a debit card number!
     
Brass  (op)
Professional Poster
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 07:52 PM
 
Originally posted by SMacTech:
Chill . . . I did mention only in Cocoa Apps. Maybe Carbons have a new API and developers have to update to support it.
It does help in providing a method for you to find what is available in OS X, the character palette. Whether it provides Key Caps drop in functionality wasn't the question.
heheh... that's funny, telling me what the question was, when I was the one asking it. Key Caps functionality WAS the question (I've edited the original post to make that clearer - hopefully).

And as I said earlier, the "Special Characters..." command is not available in all applications, and NO, it is NOT available in all Cocoa applications (some do not even have an "Edit" menu).

And even when it is available, it does not provide the functionality of KeyCaps - not even close (unless I just can't figure it out... which is possible )
( Last edited by Brass; Oct 29, 2003 at 08:03 PM. )
     
CharlesS
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Dec 2000
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 08:00 PM
 
Well, if you enable the keyboard menu, it shows up as a menu extra and will allow you to access both the character palette and keyboard palette from any application, Carbon or Cocoa.

However, I do agree that Key Caps should have been included in Panther. In addition to letting you test before you entered text into a document, it was a lot easier to find than the keyboard palette, which you have to activate the keyboard menu in the "International" pane to get to. I doubt many newbies will find this.

Fortunately, the Jaguar version of Key Caps does indeed work on Panther if you extract it from the Jaguar install CD's with Pacifist.

Ticking sound coming from a .pkg package? Don't let the .bom go off! Inspect it first with Pacifist. Macworld - five mice!
     
booboo
Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2000
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 29, 2003, 08:09 PM
 
Thank God Jaguar's KeyCaps still works.

I'd rather poke out my own eyes with blunt pencil than put up with the British flag in my menu bar.

Flag waving, what a pointless endeavour.
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:04 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,