When is RETURN not ENTER (and ENTER not RETURN)?

W

wm_walsh

I originally posted this over on comp.sys.mac.apps and was directed
over here. I'd forgotten about the Microsoft newsgroups, and didn't
know if they had any for their Mac products or not.

Long story short, Entourage 2004 (fully updated and patched) doesn't
seem to process the ENTER key an Apple Macintosh keyboard when
composing the body of an e-mail message. I've got a user who has come
from a PC background where those keys are identical in functionality
and he prefers the numpad-located ENTER key. And--so far--the rest of
Office 2004 for Mac does get it right, treating both keys equally.

Is there a workaround or solution for this? If it is a bug, where
might a person report it?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. They are much
appreciated. Please don't reply to me via e-mail, as this address
doesn't work.

William
 
D

Diane Ross

Long story short, Entourage 2004 (fully updated and patched) doesn't
seem to process the ENTER key an Apple Macintosh keyboard when
composing the body of an e-mail message. I've got a user who has come
from a PC background where those keys are identical in functionality
and he prefers the numpad-located ENTER key. And--so far--the rest of
Office 2004 for Mac does get it right, treating both keys equally.

Is there a workaround or solution for this? If it is a bug, where
might a person report it?
Click to expand...

AFAIK this has never come up. I just tested in Entourage and the Enter key
inserts a line feed, but if I type a line and hit the Numpad Enter key it
does not insert a line feed.

From Wikipedia:

On a Macintosh keyboard, the Enter and Return key are two different keys.
The Return key is the usual ig key, while the Enter key is a regular-size
key right to the right ctrl key. In most software, they behave the same, but
on the Adium software, the Return key sends the message whilst the Enter key
insert a line feed (like cmd+return).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_key>

The user needs to adjust his typing habits. I know I had to change from
command to option key at one time and thought that it would be impossible to
change old habits, but in a couple of days it became natural.

You can remap some keyboard shortcut with the software for the keyboard. At
least you can for Microsoft keyboards, but I don't see the Enter key as an
option. I advise you to do this with caution as I don't know how it would
affect other applications.

I just did a quick Google search for "reassign Enter key on keyboard" and
found this:

Use Ukelele to create a custom keyboard layout (you can open an existing
keyboard layout and just change the mapping and save with a new name to the
appropriate folder) then use the International menu (accessed from the
International System Pref) to select that keyboard layout.

Two caveats: I know from experience that keyboard preferences don't always
"stick" under 10.4.x. And I haven't tried specifically remapping the Enter
key, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

<http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ukelele&_sc=1>

There were many links that you might want to check using that search
criteria.
 
W

William R. Walsh

Hi!
AFAIK this has never come up. I just tested in Entourage and the Enter key
inserts a line feed, but if I type a line and hit the Numpad Enter key it
does not insert a line feed.
Click to expand...

And that's where the problem starts up. Other aspects of the Entourage UI
(as well as that of other Office programs, like Word 2004) *do* treat RETURN
and ENTER equally from the surface.
The user needs to adjust his typing habits.
Click to expand...

Easier said than done. Said user cannot be bothered to change, and it'll
probably be my fault. Been there, done that.
Two caveats: I know from experience that keyboard preferences don't
always "stick" under 10.4.x.
Click to expand...

This is a 10.3.9 machine, so I could hope for more reliability if the
remapping feature is available there. Still, whatever I come up with must
Just Work.

Thank you for replying. I may try the remapping idea to fix things.

William
 
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