Computer/Yahoo help?

[elaby]

Okay, testing to see if I can actually type and delete in this window... yes, I can.

My Yahoo mail is doing a VERY odd thing, and I was wondering if any of you know anything about it. When I type in an e-mail or in a reply to an e-mail, my cursor doesn't stay at the end of the line... it kind of migrates backwards, and then when I try to delete, it doesn't take any of my letters away. It merely overwrites with new letters I type so I get a jumble of letter-on-letter. I also can't move my cursor so that I can type between words I've already typed (or, at least, it doesn't show that my cursor is moving and then it doesn't insert letters between things, but overwrites and I get another jumble). Does anyone have any idea why it's doing this? I was afraid it was my keyboard or something, because sometimes in my cisunix mail, the cursor moves away from the end of the line as I type and get further to the right in the text window. That isn't nearly as much trouble as the not being able to delete thing, though.

Bah! I must not succumb to that "nothing will ever go wrong with my computer because it's a Mac" delusion that all the new Mac user tutorials warn against.

[edit] It seems to have stopped doing that in my e-mail, but I've been fooling around with my font preferences. I have my Firefox font preferences all changed because otherwise my font is MINUSCULE and gives me a headache if I try to read it. Will I just naturally have issues with random weird font things if I fool around with the font preferences? For example, half the time the last few letters of every line on my LJ are cut off by the right margin, no matter how I stretch or don't stretch the screen. Is this just something that happens when you take your font preferences off default? [/edit]

Comments

[dave-t-lurker.livejournal.com]

It does sound like it is a font size preference thing, more the fault of the webdesigner than the OS / Browser. You could try asking in the macosx group, someone there would know for sure.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

The only time I've had my Mac do anything remotely similar to this is when I had a crumb or something stuck under my cloverleaf key and/or my option key and spontaneously the computer would think I'd pressed it in along with whatever alphanumeric key I actually did press, and so it did whatever control-command-special function corresponded to that key press combination.

Just a guess, here, but I'd suspect your command key may have something under it. cmd and the minus sign makes fonts tiny in browsers, and there's probably some three-key combination that toggles you between insert and overwrite when you're trying to compose email.

I've had the same sticky sometimes-pressed-when-it's-not problem with my mousebutton on my powerbook... it's like the mouse button gets stuck thinking it's been clicked and not released, or the touchpad thinks I'm sweeping my finger across it so my cursor migrates on the screen.

I'm not having either of these problems now, and all I did was clean the keyboard and click the mousebutton repeatedly to get it to be unsticky.

I hope your problem has a similarly-easy fix. Best of luck!

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Which group is this?

[elaby.livejournal.com]

That sounds like it might be the problem. Thanks for responding :) How would you suggest cleaning? Canned air?

[dave-t-lurker.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/macosx/

They are a very knowledgeable bunch, decent people too.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I'll definitely try asking around there. The most current problem is that I bought a USB-Serial adapter for my tablet, and the tablet installed on my Mac just fine, but it just won't WORK. All of the components are there, but it won't do anything. Serial tablets don't work on OS X, say various sources, but I found an open-source program that's supposed to make them work, and it recognizes my tablet, but I still can't get it to actually function. This'll be a good place to ask.