Delete Key not working without fn or ctrl

hi all - i've just bought my first mac . . . its a Macbook pro running osx 10.5.2, the delete key does not work on its own but does work when i hold down fn or ctrl .. .any ideas for this newbie?

thanks

robin

If the deleting you're talking about is a file or folder then that's the way it's supposed to work.

If you're talking about using it to delete text when typing then there's something wrong. It should work unmodified as a delete-to-the-left key and with the Fn to delete to the right.

HTH
mrplow

Thanks - I'm just deleting text, if i just press the delete key nothing happens, if i press delete and Fn it deletes to the left, if I press ctrl and delete it deletes to the right . . any ideas?

R

Does this affect all apps/finder etc? Or just one specifically?

hi there - it affects all of the apps in the finder - when I have the downloads window open and try to delete a file with just the delete key the computer just speaks back the file name. anything text based the delete key does nothing . . . thanks

robin767 said:

hi there - it affects all of the apps in the finder - when I have the downloads window open and try to delete a file with just the delete key the computer just speaks back the file name. anything text based the delete key does nothing . . . thanks

Click to expand...

Have you got it set as you speech shortcut? Check the settings in system preferences.

I think you may be confused about the function of a Delete key on the Mac.

On PCs, the Delete key deletes the text to the right of the cursor. Backspace deletes the text to the left of the cursor. On the Mac, it works a little bit differently.

By default, Delete should act like the backspace on a PC. Used in tandem with Fn, it should act like a Delete key on a PC.

thanks for your replies - the delete key does not work on it's own, when I press it on its own it either does nothing or reads out the name of the active window which I am in.

When I go into system preferences and to the keyboard and mouse icon i reset defaults and checked that "D" was not the shortcut for anything on it's own . . any ideas?

R

Did you check the speech settings in system preferences?

So when you are pressing keys your computer is talking to you? If so, open System Preferences, Universal Access and set Voice Over to Off.

You said when you press Delete it's reading out the name.

all sorted, a big thanks to all that helped . .it was set to the delete key in the speech settings . . . . . . .thanks again

My "6" key quit working... but triggered a "beep" sound (indicates the hardware WAS ok on the key. Also the Upper Case still produced the "^" caret symbol ok.

Finally my wife signed on with her user profile and her 6-key was fine.

Thanks to skaheadpunk's entry above, I checked the speech settings and found the 6hingy set with a "6". I entered a control sequence in its place and returned the 6-key function to normality. Thanks loads! -- But I am still wondering WHY it got that way?

Is there some other application that accidentally overwrites this option with a random character?

Greg M