Shortly after the release of Snow Leopard, some users have reported a problem where the keyboard stops working after switching spaces. While the mouse remains responsive, the keyboard becomes dysfunctional for any key input, possibly except for the keyboard shortcut to switch spaces again. In many instances, the space selection “window” seen to right refuses to disappear and stays on top of other windows, though this is not always the case. Cnet has documented this issue before:
This problem seems to happen only when people use keyboard shortcuts to select a specific Space, rather than when activating the Spaces grid view. The Spaces indicator will activate and then seem to remain as the foremost process, not quitting or allowing other applications to use the keyboard.
Spaces is integrated into the Dock; therefore, if this problem occurs, you can regain control of your keyboard by force-quitting the Dock. Since the mouse should be working, you can navigate to the Utilities folder and open “Activity Monitor.” From here, highlight the Dock process and click the “Quit” button, which should make the dock disappear and reappear, releasing the hold on the keyboard.
In case you didn’t click on the article link, that article was posted over three months ago; the lack of attention to this problem from Apple is getting somewhat annoying. Some users have reported that if you use an external keyboard, unplugging it and plugging it back in will fix the problem. But for us MacBook owners, force-quitting the Dock is the only workaround.
Instead of navigating to the Activity Monitor, I’ve compiled an Automator script to force-quit the Dock for you. Just keep it on your desktop (or in your Dock) to relaunch the Dock and fix the Spaces issue whenever you need it.
Click here to download.
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MacRumors has recently reported that most of the issues with Microsoft Office and Apple’s desktop “Spaces” should finally be fixed in Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. The problem, which had serious consequences on usability had made many users permanently switch over to iWork, including myself. So what took so long? Microsoft pinned the blame on Apple, citing the architectural implementation of Spaces in Leopard as the cause of the issue. However, in a recent blog post Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit senior product manager Mike Tedesco has announced that both Apple and Microsoft have worked together to fix the problem in Snow Leopard:
Q. Are there any differences with Office 2008 for Mac running on Snow Leopard vs. Leopard?
A. Office 2008 for Mac is Snow Leopard tested and ready! Best of all, with the launch of Snow Leopard, the bulk of the Word 2008 Spaces issues have been fixed after our collaborative efforts to address the problem.
Mike’s wording connotes that there may still be a few lingering bugs. The Microsoft Mac help and support site suggests that there are problems when the Formatting Palette is open:
Note: With the release of Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard, a number of Word 2008 for Mac Spaces issues are fixed. For example, when the Formatting Palette is closed, there is improved performance between Word 2008 for Mac and Spaces.
Hopefully everything will (soon) be fixed in upcoming updates.
[via MacRumors]
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Also compatible with Snow Leopard!
SmackBook was originally a name given to the method used to switch between virtual desktops in Richard Wareham’s Desktop Manager using the MacBook’s built-in motion sensor. You would “smack” the MacBook on the side, and the sensor would read the movement and trigger the program to go to the desktop corresponding to the direction of the smack. Leopard’s spaces has made Desktop Manager nearly obsolete, but thanks to Jason Shen we can once again use it for SmackBook thanks to a script he’s written.
First you will need to download a few files:
- smackleopard.command, the file that contains the sensitivity information and calls for the system event to switch spaces, and
- AMSTracker, the command-line program that retrieves acceleration data from the Sudden Motion Sensor
Read the rest of this entry »
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