Text has vanished

Discuss the word processor
Bill
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Posts: 8932
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:48 am

Re: Text has vanished

Post by Bill »

freemycatfish wrote:Finally, moving Ctrl-A to a function key would hardly be enough to ruin your day. Leaving it where it is could ruin the day for thousands of others.
Moving CTRL+A to a function key would ruin the day for millions. CTRL+A has been the universal keyboard shortcut for "select all" for a very long time in Windows and Linux. My keyboard even has "All" imprinted on the front of the "A" key as a reminder.

CTRL+A is also used by MS Word and every text editing program I've ever used. Your loss of data can happen in any other text editing program if you don't learn how to recognize the problem and how to fix it. Do you intend to ask Microsoft to change the keyboard shortcut? I doubt that they would consider it seriously. Such a change would result in the Windows forums being inundated by posts complaining about "change for the sake of change" and calling for the firing of those responsible for the change.
AOO 4.1.14 on Ubuntu MATE 22.04
John_Ha
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Posts: 9584
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: Text has vanished

Post by John_Ha »

The genius of Microsoft is in writing complex software that is presented in a way that will allow a computer illiterate person to use it ...
My apologies - I said I would not post again, but as an IT professional of many years standing, I am reluctant to let that go.

Computer illiterates do indeed tend to equate Microsoft with genius.

Computer literates don't wear such rose tinted spectacles, and tend to understand more about the facts of the matter. Standards anyone? Bloatware? Security holes in Windows? Internet Explorer "compatibility mode"? Vista? Windows 8? I could go on ...
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9584
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: Text has vanished

Post by John_Ha »

On reflection, freemycatfish's first error, and the root cause of his problems, is probably that he has never learned to touch-type despite his making his living by typing. He cannot look at the screen when he types.

As a consequence, his second error is that he looks at the keyboard when he types, and he does not look at the screen to see what he is doing. He is typing blindly ...

His third error is to type Ctrl+A by mistake.

His fourth error is that he does not see the whole screen get highlighted, which alerts a normal typist that all has been selected - he is not looking at the screen.

His fifth error is to carry on typing, completely oblivious, and hence he replaces the entire document with his next keystrokes.

His sixth error is that he does not see it disappear - he types on blindly, completely oblivious. Some time later, when he eventually looks up at the screen, he is horrified to see he has lost everything.

His seventh error is that he hasn't learned about Windows or Writer, so he does not know the very basic fact that pressing Ctrl+Z (Windows), or choosing Edit > Undo ... (Writer) will undo what he has recently done, and recover all the text which he has carelessly instructed Writer to delete.

Despite his seven errors he now blames the loss on Writer - and he launches his tirades against Writer, Writer's authors and against those trying to assist him. The only organisation receiving praise is Microsoft which, ironically, is the very organisation which provides the Ctrl+A = Select All function he detests so much!

It appears that freemycatfish must have tried the "convert Ctrl+A to the About OpenOffice pop-up" as we have heard no more from him. I hope that he honours his pledge to give some money to the OpenOffice project - he can do so at How to Donate.

It would also be appreciated if he thanked those who so patiently explained his errors to him - three people typed over 2,500 words trying to help him - and they explained to him how to prevent its ever happening again.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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