Apple Users
Related: About this forumMacBook glitch when typing
I have owned 2 MacBooks. They both do this annoying thing on occasion when typing that I am unable to duplicate. The cursor will suddenly go to the beginning of the text I have already typed. This causes me to have to delete what got typed in the wrong place and to move the cursor back to where I was typing. This tends to break my chain of thought. Anybody else have this problem?
unblock
(54,115 posts)i have had this problem many times. it means one of two things:
1) there is a static charge on the touchpad/keyboard, in which case grounding the laptop and rebooting will usually fix the problem or
2) the touchpad/keyboard is fried and needs replacing. it's actually cheap and not hard to do this.
marble falls
(61,994 posts)the weird part is it only happens on DU!
Tetrachloride
(8,442 posts)Can you list your word processor ? I tend to think this is your culprit --- in part.
If there is a modifier, such as CTRL or something which is sticking, this can help activate hidden shortcuts.
Less likely, something in System Preferences / Keyboard / Shortcuts
CloudWatcher
(1,922 posts)Just a tidbit ... almost all Mac editors have some historical "emacs" key bindings. What? In particular ...
control-e go to the end of the line
control-n go down a line (next)
control-p up up a line (prev)
control-f go forward a character
control-b go backward a character
control-d sucks up the next character
control-k kill (delete into kill buffer) from the current position to the end of the line
control-y undelete (yank) the kill buffer into the current cursor position.
control-l scroll window to center the current line
Why am I spewing all of this?
Well, first of all I use them all the time. It's much faster than having to use the mouse/trackpad for simple edits while typing.
But also ... is there a chance you were hitting control-a instead of (for example) shift-a when the cursor jumps to the beginning of the line?
I've seen my cursor jump around unexpectedly, but it's usually my fat-fingering the keyboard (well, when it's not my cat).
HTH.
TexasProgresive
(12,274 posts)I touch type but I learned on a manual typewriter. Am I showing my age? Anyway I have a bad habit of using the shift key with my left little finger even though the letter I am wanting is a left hand letter. Since "control" is below shift that makes it possible.
Thanks, I saved your list for future reference.
Tetrachloride
(8,442 posts)With its MacBook keyboards in the spotlight again thanks to a bruising column from Joanna Stern at The Wall Street Journal, Apple today acknowledged that a small number of its customers are still experiencing reliability issues and failing keys when using the companys third-generation butterfly keyboard.