missing "L"

[FPS, Romney]

Access 2000/2002 ...
On this one person's laptop, the letter "L" (upper or lowercase) does not
work when she types the letter on her keyboard. She can't type the letter
"L" into any of the text boxes on any of her forms, nor does the letter show
up in any reports based upon those text boxes. (Her current workaround is to
try to come up with words without the letter "L").

However, if she "zooms" a textbox (F2), then the letter "L" works fine. She
also has no problem using that letter in other applications (Word, etc.)

Ideas?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Klatuu]

Well, you get the Weird Post of the Month award for this one.
I have never heard such a thing, but here is how I would do some testing to
isolate the behaviour:

Copy the mdb from her laptop to another laptop and see if it happens on a
different computer.

Put a known working version on her computer.

That will isolate where it is happening.

If it turns out it happens only on her computer and not the other, then it
is not the mdb file.

Does it happen in any other Access applications?
If she has no others, write a quick test mdb to see what happens. Be sure
it works on the source computer then install it on hers.

If that app also fails, then if she is using the Runtime, reinstall it. If
full Access, see what happens in a new mdb created on her computer. It it
still fails, reinstall all of Office.

I would really like to know what you find out.

Good Luck

 

[FPS, Romney]

Thanks for the response and suggestions, Klatuu. I'll post back what I find
out, but that probably won't be until next week. I'm pretty sure she's had
the problem through several upgrades to the frontend that I've sent her
(i.e., full replacements of the frontend .mdb). I was thinking it might be
some setting that got accidently set which is part of the Microsoft Access
program, rather than a particular database ... much like toolbar buttons --
buttons added in one database show up in the other databases. But, I'll
definitely send her a test database with a text field to try out.
Mark

 

[John W. Vinson]

Access 2000/2002 ...
On this one person's laptop, the letter "L" (upper or lowercase) does not
work when she types the letter on her keyboard. She can't type the letter
"L" into any of the text boxes on any of her forms, nor does the letter show
up in any reports based upon those text boxes. (Her current workaround is to
try to come up with words without the letter "L").

However, if she "zooms" a textbox (F2), then the letter "L" works fine. She
also has no problem using that letter in other applications (Word, etc.)

Ideas?

Thanks,
Mark

Maybe she got the laptop for Christmas - no L, no L!?

I agree with Dave that this is a wierd one. I can see how you could set up an
individual form to do this - set the form's KeyPreview property and use the
OnKey event to swallow the letter L - but not an entire database!

 

[John Spencer]

We__ to continue off topic.

I think this is one L of a problem.

'====================================================
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2008
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland Baltimore County
'====================================================

 

[FPS, Romney]

"No el" bug ... that's good.
Mark

 

[FPS, Romney]

Actually, at this point, I don't know if the problem shows up elsewhere in
her database. I would think, however, that the KeyPreview property & OnKey
event would be tied to the form and the problem would disappear as she
replaces her frontend with newer frontends.
Mark

 

[FPS, Romney]

At the risk of losing the "Weird Post of the Year Award", I've received
further info from the person with the laptop. Rather than the "L" key (and
it's just lowercase which is the problem) simply not showing up on the
form's texbox, what happens is that her form becomes minimized when she hits
the lowercase "L". (This is what she meant by "the 'L' doesn't work"). The
form she has open goes to the taskbar and she sees the database window in
the upper left corner of her screen. This occurs on any of the forms in her
database. She is using the latest frontend, so this problem has persisted
across several frontend replacements. I haven't had a chance to issue her a
test.mdb.

I'm guessing that the lowercase "L" has somehow become a shortcut key for
minimizing her active form, or for switching to the database window, and
this is at the level of her Access program, rather than a particular form,
and will probably occur in any database on her computer.

This may be easy to fix (he said hopefully), but I still haven't had a
chance to travel to her location.
Mark

 

[BruceM]

I don't think a single key can be a shortcut key as such, but perhaps there
is a SendKeys macro (although the fact that it applies only to her computer,
on databases that apparently work without the quirk elsewhere, shoots a
pretty big whole in that hypothesis).
Is there any code that uses the Asc function? If the problem database is
moved elsewhere does the problem persist? Are there any APIs that get her
logon name or computer name or something else specific to her computer? If
there is a network logon, and if she uses another computer to log on as
herself, does the problem continue?

 

[BruceM]

That was supposed to be "a pretty big hole", not "a pretty big whole".
Darned homophones!

 

[FPS, Romney]

Bruce,
I don't recall using the Asc function, although I use a SpellCheck routine
written by someone else on many of the text fields and perhaps that function
is part of that routine. But, again, it would be the same routine used on
the same frontend distributed to other users.
I haven't had a chance to copy the frontend to her computer, open a form and
try to use the lowercase "L" and then copy her frontend to another
computer -- but, I can try that.
Re: APIs ... that's over my head.
Re: network logon -- she uses the same as other users (it's a small
network).
.... who knows, by the time I get time to travel to her office I may discover
that her finger brushes across some key when she types a lowercase "L", or
something weird like that.
Thanks for your input.
Mark

 

[FPS, Romney]

My apologies to the helpers in this newsgroup; this is not an Access issue
and I should have actually looked at the laptop before posting.

FYI, it seems that her "L" key (CAPS off) functions as an F-11 key -- and
without holding down the Alt or Ctrl key. Hit the lowercase "L" and the
database window appears. Both the database window and the active form window
are still open, but not full-screen (like hitting the maximize/restore
button). Sometimes the lowercase "L" actually registers in the textbox on
the active form -- sometimes not. The problem does not occur in Word, but if
you type a lowercase "L" in the address bar on Internet Explorer, the window
maximizes and maximizes even more than when it is normally maximized. It
maximizes to the point that you can't see a couple of the menu bars at the
top of the window!

Ling Adams may have been right ... it may be the "notorious 'No el' bug".
I'm going to try three things:
1. bother the folks on one of the Dell forums to see if it's possible to
(inadvertantly) map a single key to F-11;
2. if that doesn't work, I'll try running an antivirus program;
3. if that doesn't work, I'll try soaking the laptop in a bucket of water
for an hour or two to see if that makes the problem go away.
Mark

 

[John W. Vinson]

Ling Adams may have been right ... it may be the "notorious 'No el' bug".
I'm going to try three things:
1. bother the folks on one of the Dell forums to see if it's possible to
(inadvertantly) map a single key to F-11;
2. if that doesn't work, I'll try running an antivirus program;
3. if that doesn't work, I'll try soaking the laptop in a bucket of water
for an hour or two to see if that makes the problem go away.
Mark

See if you can get some hydrofluoric acid instead... get rid of all that pesky
silicon in the chips, they're the cause of all computer problems!! <g>

Glad it had a plausible solution, even if it isn't a reasonable solution!