Caps lock key should not be polled directly - keyboard layout switches

[Soroosh Radpoor]

Binary package hint: openoffice.org

I use Capslock to switch keyboard layout. (Keyboard preferences > Layouts > Layout options > Layout switching > Capslock key), but when I am typing with "Iran" keyboard layout in openoffice, my keyboard layout changes to US (Specially when I enter two letter words). but it works fine in gutsy. I am using hardy.

[Reza Mohammadi (remohammadi)]

It's because of "Correct accidental use of cAPS LOCK key" option of AutoCorrect.
It seems that it is not important for OOo if you use Caps Lock for any other purpose. OOo just monitors the button, not the text. :P

[Filofel (filofel)]

This problem is more of a nuisance than it seems at first.
"Use case" and consequence analysis:

After OpenOffice Writer has one auto-corrected once a case of cAPS LOCK, it sticks to reverting the state of the Caps Locks key. This auto-correcting behavior doesn't spontaneously disappears after the user has pressed the Caps Lock key, presumably indicating that the user is back in charge of the Caps Lock key. It seems that the only way to reverse the behavior is actually to recreate the problem (e.g. to type another instance of an inverted caps word at the beginning of a paragraph and have it "autocorrected" the other (right) way).

But there is worse:
The Caps Lock inversion applies to the whole desktop, even if your Keyboard Preferance / Layout option "Separate layout for each window" is set.
So if you had a terminal window opened on the desktop and start typing in it, it will start generating and echoing UPPERCASE commands there too, the behavior of your Caps Lock key / LED being inverted.

And the cherry on the cake:
This behavior persists even after the user has exited from OpenOffice Writer.
That results is an interesting (?) puzzle for the user and/or the support person having to deal with questions like "Why does Ubuntu manage my Caps Lock key the wrong way?" (and "It worked before, how (or why) did I get there?").

(Been there: I just spent a few hours to figuring out that one for my wife!)

[Indian Art (goldfish-aol)]

If Openoffice has to change (inverse) the Caps lock to Capitals or lower case then it should let us know by switching on and off the 'Caps Lock' LED respectively. This does not happen and the LED for 'Caps Lock' continues to be on or off as the case may be and thus causes confusion.

As the gentleman above stated it can make life very disruptive. I'm sure there is a way of doing it because MS Word has this feature.
Hope the fix comes soon.
Thanks all.

[Lost Rider (manolo-hernandez)]

i am having the same issue as above. currently the num-lock is not working and the caps lock is inverted.

[Xandros Pilosa (folivora)]

Confirmed in oo 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1 (hardy-updates).
Symptoms like described by Filofel.
The temporary cure works as described in his post.
Very annoying thing , really. Especially because the reverted cAPS LOCK state persist until the session is restarted and user may not know why the keyboard went into lunacy.

Regards!

[Khaled Khalil (khaled-khalil)]

I have the same issue here, OpenOffice is simply unusable for me, i have to write in other text editor and then paste it to OOo writer.
Unfortunately Filofel's work around will not work for me, my case is more like Soroosh Radpoor's, Arabic and Persian languages don't have upper/letter case for the letter, hence no capitals.
what i can't seem to understand is that the problem occurs whenever i typed a two character word, grammatically valid or not, there is many such words in Arabic, like مع من أن لن كي طظ في أأ بط etc.
isn't there anyway to turn auto-correct off ? in case that's what fires the bug really.

[egiova (egiova63)]

It seems to be a Java thing.
Last time I had this problem, I decided to desintall and reinstall. It seems
that this bug is fixed in Ooo 3.0. For me the bug desapear after fresh
install (I work on Ubuntu 9.04).
Sorry to not be able to help more than that.
Good luck
EG

2009/8/23 Khaled Khalil <email address hidden>

> I have the same issue here, OpenOffice is simply unusable for me, i have to
> write in other text editor and then paste it to OOo writer.
> Unfortunately Filofel's work around will not work for me, my case is more
> like Soroosh Radpoor's, Arabic and Persian languages don't have upper/letter
> case for the letter, hence no capitals.
> what i can't seem to understand is that the problem occurs whenever i typed
> a two character word, grammatically valid or not, there is many such words
> in Arabic, like مع من أن لن كي طظ في أأ بط etc.
> isn't there anyway to turn auto-correct off ? in case that's what fires the
> bug really.
>
> --
> [upstream] caps lock key should not be polled directly - openoffice
> switches keyboard layout
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/227326
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in The OpenOffice.org Suite: Confirmed
> Status in “openoffice.org” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: openoffice.org
>
> I use Capslock to switch keyboard layout. (Keyboard preferences > Layouts
> > Layout options > Layout switching > Capslock key), but when I am typing
> with "Iran" keyboard layout in openoffice, my keyboard layout changes to US
> (Specially when I enter two letter words). but it works fine in gutsy. I am
> using hardy.
>

[Khaled Khalil (khaled-khalil)]

no, not on my side. I am using OOo 3.0.1 (Build:9379), the actual in
repositories, also on 9.04 .
the bug on my part perfectly fit the original report description by Soroosh
Radpoor.
the bug is not fixed, and it turns OOo usage to nightmare for me.

2009/8/24 egiova <email address hidden>

> It seems to be a Java thing.
> Last time I had this problem, I decided to desintall and reinstall. It
> seems
> that this bug is fixed in Ooo 3.0. For me the bug desapear after fresh
> install (I work on Ubuntu 9.04).
> Sorry to not be able to help more than that.
> Good luck
> EG
>
> 2009/8/23 Khaled Khalil <email address hidden>
>
> > I have the same issue here, OpenOffice is simply unusable for me, i have
> to
> > write in other text editor and then paste it to OOo writer.
> > Unfortunately Filofel's work around will not work for me, my case is more
> > like Soroosh Radpoor's, Arabic and Persian languages don't have
> upper/letter
> > case for the letter, hence no capitals.
> > what i can't seem to understand is that the problem occurs whenever i
> typed
> > a two character word, grammatically valid or not, there is many such
> words
> > in Arabic, like مع من أن لن كي طظ في أأ بط etc.
> > isn't there anyway to turn auto-correct off ? in case that's what fires
> the
> > bug really.
> >
> > --
> > [upstream] caps lock key should not be polled directly - openoffice
> > switches keyboard layout
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/227326
> > You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> > of a duplicate bug.
> >
> > Status in The OpenOffice.org Suite: Confirmed
> > Status in “openoffice.org” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> >
> > Bug description:
> > Binary package hint: openoffice.org
> >
> > I use Capslock to switch keyboard layout. (Keyboard preferences >
> Layouts
> > > Layout options > Layout switching > Capslock key), but when I am typing
> > with "Iran" keyboard layout in openoffice, my keyboard layout changes to
> US
> > (Specially when I enter two letter words). but it works fine in gutsy. I
> am
> > using hardy.
> >
>
> --
> [upstream] caps lock key should not be polled directly - openoffice
> switches keyboard layout
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/227326
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Khaled Khalil

[egiova (egiova63)]

Sorry to hear that, I use version in-built from Ubuntu and I have no problem
since installed... however still collecting clues about this one. What about
your Java? (mine: Open JDJ 6) I insist it's maybe the answer.
EG

2009/8/23 Khaled Khalil <email address hidden>

> no, not on my side. I am using OOo 3.0.1 (Build:9379), the actual in
> repositories, also on 9.04 .
> the bug on my part perfectly fit the original report description by Soroosh
> Radpoor.
> the bug is not fixed, and it turns OOo usage to nightmare for me.
>
> 2009/8/24 egiova <email address hidden>
>
> > It seems to be a Java thing.
> > Last time I had this problem, I decided to desintall and reinstall. It
> > seems
> > that this bug is fixed in Ooo 3.0. For me the bug desapear after fresh
> > install (I work on Ubuntu 9.04).
> > Sorry to not be able to help more than that.
> > Good luck
> > EG
> >
> > 2009/8/23 Khaled Khalil <email address hidden>
> >
> > > I have the same issue here, OpenOffice is simply unusable for me, i
> have
> > to
> > > write in other text editor and then paste it to OOo writer.
> > > Unfortunately Filofel's work around will not work for me, my case is
> more
> > > like Soroosh Radpoor's, Arabic and Persian languages don't have
> > upper/letter
> > > case for the letter, hence no capitals.
> > > what i can't seem to understand is that the problem occurs whenever i
> > typed
> > > a two character word, grammatically valid or not, there is many such
> > words
> > > in Arabic, like مع من أن لن كي طظ في أأ بط etc.
> > > isn't there anyway to turn auto-correct off ? in case that's what fires
> > the
> > > bug really.
> > >
> > > --
> > > [upstream] caps lock key should not be polled directly - openoffice
> > > switches keyboard layout
> > > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/227326
> > > You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> > > of a duplicate bug.
> > >
> > > Status in The OpenOffice.org Suite: Confirmed
> > > Status in “openoffice.org” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> > >
> > > Bug description:
> > > Binary package hint: openoffice.org
> > >
> > > I use Capslock to switch keyboard layout. (Keyboard preferences >
> > Layouts
> > > > Layout options > Layout switching > Capslock key), but when I am
> typing
> > > with "Iran" keyboard layout in openoffice, my keyboard layout changes
> to
> > US
> > > (Specially when I enter two letter words). but it works fine in gutsy.
> I
> > am
> > > using hardy.
> > >
> >
> > --
> > [upstream] caps lock key should not be polled directly - openoffice
> > switches keyboard layout
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/227326
> > You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> > of the bug.
> >
>
>
> --
> Khaled Khalil
>
> --
> [upstream] caps lock key should not be polled directly - openoffice
> switches keyboard layout
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/227326
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in The OpenOffice.org Suite: Confirmed
> Status in “openoffice.org” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: openoffice.org
>
> I use Capslock to switch keyboard layout. (Keyboar...

[Xandros Pilosa (folivora)]

Khaled,
unselecting the option in Writer: Tools > AutoCorrect > "Correct accidental use of cAPS Lock key" did help in my case (Ubuntu Hardy, Openoffice.org 2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1).
To completely turn off AutoCorrect uncheck: Format > AutoFormat > While Typing
Regards

[Khaled Khalil (khaled-khalil)]

eglova, I have java sun 6 (build 1.6.0_14-b08) set as default. and even
setting open JDK 6 (IcedTea6 1.4.1) (6b14-1.4.1-0ubuntu11) and then
restarting OOo have no effect.

Xandros, thanks, unchecking "Correct accidental use of cAPS Lock key"
resolved it.

2009/8/24 Xandros Pilosa <email address hidden>

> Khaled,
> unselecting the option in Writer: Tools > AutoCorrect > "Correct
> accidental use of cAPS Lock key" did help in my case (Ubuntu Hardy,
> Openoffice.org 2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1).
> To completely turn off AutoCorrect uncheck: Format > AutoFormat > While
> Typing
> Regards
>
> --
> [upstream] caps lock key should not be polled directly - openoffice
> switches keyboard layout
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/227326
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Khaled Khalil

[John Quail (johnquail)]

I can confirm this bug is related to the "Correct accidental use of cAPS Lock key" auto-correct feature.

I disabled this feature in Lucid with Hebrew layout and it fixed the problem.

Thanks Xandros

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Soroosh Radpoor, Please execute the following command, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect 213052
When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

Does LibreOffice work for you? If using Lucid or Maverick feel free to perform at the Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade && sudo apt-get -y install libreoffice-writer

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

[This is an automated message.]
There are no new official OpenOffice.org releases in Ubuntu packaging anymore => Won't Fix

If the problem persists, please mark this bug as "also affects project Libreoffice" or "also affects distribution Libreoffice (Ubuntu)" if that has not happened already.

Please leave references to upstream OpenOffice.org bugs in place to allow cross pollination.

[Haggai Eran (haggai-eran)]

Hi,

I've checked Libreoffice on Ubuntu Natty, and I think this bug is fixed their. It seems that when using Caps lock to switch keyboard layouts, the "Correct accidental use of cAPS LOCK key" feature is disabled automatically. It doesn't correct any text, even when using Shift-Caps-lock to use capital letters and not switch layouts. When using another key combination to switch layouts, the feature works as expected.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

closing as per #15