Narrow Black text bar, across bottom left of screen.

[ckristoff]

Hello friends, once again, can you help me please?

I currently have a narrow black rectangular text box, across the bottom left of my screen, above the icons list, e.g. Finder. I just don't know how to get rid of this annoying feature. As I'm typing, what I'm typing, shows up in that box, one word at a time.

Also, my caps lock button isn't working, so I wasn't able to login to a website this morning. I would be grateful if you could help me with this please.

When I turned on my Mac this morning, something called voice control was on! Absolutely annoying! Every button I pressed, was a mentioned, as well as all the words, after they had been typed in! Thankfully, my son helped me get the voice control turned off, using system preferences. He's not an Apple user, he used Google on his mobile phone, to figure it out. This black box business, I simply don't understand. I'm not that intelligent.

How this came about, was, my daughter-in-law, was using my Mac for something. She also had her baby daughter in her arms, therefore some buttons were pressed, I don't know which ones.

As for myself, I never press any buttons on this keyboard, that I don't recognise - I don't want to break anything!

Thank you, Frank.

 

[RadDave]

Hi Frank - I suspect your grandchild likely activated some 'combo key' feature, probably VoiceOver which is in the Accessibility selection of System Preferences - your son seemed to have discovered at least part of the solution - but look again to make sure the feature is no longer on - some more information HERE which might help. Let us know - if not needed but accidentally activated, the accessibility options can be annoying. Dave

 

[ckristoff]

Hello RadDave,

thank you for your swift reply. As far as I'm aware, the VoiceOver feature is now off.

However, I'm still annoyed by this black text bar, on the bottom left of my screen. Also my Caps Lock button is not working - I don't know why. Another annoying feature is, where-ever I right click my mouse button, a square line appears. Like a text box border I mean. I think I'm going crazy!


Frank.

 

[ckristoff]

Hello friends,

I've just checked, the VoiceOver function is off, it is un-ticked. Yet, I still hear speech sound. In the last minute, I went on Facebook, clicked on an advert for guitar tuition. In the black box I'm talking about, the voice sound comes on, accompanied by text being duplicated in this box. It is very frustrating. Another annoying feature is, wherever I click my mouse, a black square line appears, where you can type text. This black square line doesn't disappear.

Is there a reset button for the Mac? I.E. as in a factory reset?


Frank.

 

[ferrarr]

Have you restarted your iMac?

Edit: A factory reset, for the iMac is Recovery, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314. Please backup all your important data before proceeding.

 

[ckristoff]

Yes, I've tried that. Is there anything else I can try?


Frank.

 

[MacInWin]

What I would try is to go to System Preferences> Accessibility and got through all of the options to turn off anything that may have gotten turned on by accident. That includes all the Media settings, Interaction setting and of course all of the Display and Speech settings. I suspect something has been set by accident.

EDIT: I just noticed that Alt-Cmd-F5 triggers on an off accessibility features. You may want to give that a go, too.

 

[RadDave]

Yes, I've tried that. Is there anything else I can try?

Frank - you're receiving a lot of responses - but just to address your Caps-Lock issue - go to 'System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys..' (see pic below) and make sure the Caps-Lock feature was not switch to another key combo or set to 'No Action' - Dave
.

 

[ferrarr]

Do you have another use account you can log in with, for testing purposes?

 

[pm-r]

However, I'm still annoyed by this black text bar, on the bottom left of my screen

That black text bar on the bottom left of your screen: That's VoiceOver. To disable it, press Command and F5 keys, or open System Preferences > Universal Access, and turn off VoiceOver.

Done!!! I don't think a Restart is required.

If it doesn't fix things, shutdown, wait 40+ seconds then startup. Don't just Restart,





- Patrick
======

 

[ckristoff]

Hello friends,

thank you for your kind responses, I do appreciate it.

I've been missing a couple of days, because of medical appointments, with more to follow before Christmas.

I'll take a closer look in the next couple of days.


Thank you all, once again, Frank.

 

[ckristoff]

Hello again,

I'm very grateful that you have taken the time to help, a dumb and dumber, such as I!

I applied the voice-over function, and the black box is now gone - thank you!

I went to System Preferences and by following your instructions, the Caps lock button is working again! Once again, thank you.


Frank - a very happy bunny!