Technology Tales

Adding line breaks in Excel in a Citrix Windows session on a Mac

Today, I tried connecting to a client system using my Mac Mini. Everything went well, aside perhaps from some resizing, apart from something more crucial: adding a line break in a cell in an Excel spreadsheet. The usual combination of ALT+ENTER was not doing the needful. Instead, I needed to use CMD+OPTION+ENTER, as it would be on a Mac keyboard. Since I use a Windows one inside, it looks like this: WIN+ALT+ENTER. It was only by looking through the options for the Citrix Workspace app that came upon this after being prompted to do so by ChatGPT, itself not supplying the fully correct information that I needed. Now, all I need to do is remember to use the correct keyboard shortcut, and I am away.

Stop Microsoft Edge warning you before quitting on macOS

My new client only supports Microsoft Edge for logging onto their systems. Thus, I needed to install that onto my iMac and Mac Mini devices for those occasions when I am not using a Windows device (as it happens, I have yet to try that with Linux). However, Edge issues a warning on exiting it using the CMD+Q shortcut, the quickest way to do that and safer than clicking on the red X on the top right of the application as I have found with other situations on macOS (incidentally, that is similar to using the CMD+W keyboard shortcut). To get rid of the warning, I needed to go to Settings > Appearance > Browser behaviour and features > Warn before quitting with ⌘Q. Once there, it was a matter of toggling the setting to the off position and I was done. However, placing that under Appearance remains an odd decision to me.

Reactivating Touch ID on an iMac when the options are greyed out in System Settings

Recently, when the battery in my iMac keyboard ran out of charge, I merely connected it to the all-in-one system using the supplied cable. However, a software upgrade meant a system restart, which lost the ability to unlock the iMac using the Touch ID.

When I went to Touch ID & Password within the Systems Settings app, I found all the options greyed out, preventing me from restoring things that way. The result was that I needed to disconnect the cable before turning off the keyboard in advance of turning it back on again. That was enough to restore Touch ID usage; the settings were not only activated but turned on for me. It is a little lesson on how different things can be for a new Mac user.

Quickly changing between virtual desktops in Windows 10

One of the benefits of running Linux is the availability of virtual desktops, and installing VirtuaWin was the only way to get the same functionality on Windows before the launch of Windows 10. For reasons known to Microsoft, they decided against the same sort of implementation as seen in Linux or UNIX. Instead, they put the virtual desktop functionality a click away and rather hides it from most users unless they know what clicking on the Task View button allows. The approach also made switching between desktops slower with a mouse. However, there are keyboard shortcuts that address this once multiple virtual desktops exist.

Using WIN + CTRL + LEFT or WIN + CTRL + RIGHT does this easily once you have mastered the action. Depending on your keyboard setup, WIN is the Windows, Super or Command key while CTRL is the Control key. Then, LEFT is the left arrow key and RIGHT is the right arrow key. For machines with smaller screens where multitasking causes clutter, virtual desktops are a godsend for organising how you work, and having quick key combinations for switching between them adds to their utility.

Keyboard shortcut for Euro currency symbol on Windows 10

Because I now have business dealings in Ireland, there is a need to add in the Euro currency symbol to emails even though I based in the U.K. and use U.K. keyboard settings. While there is the possibility to insert the symbol in Microsoft Office and other applications, using a simple keyboard shortcut is more efficient since it avoids multiple mouse clicks. For some reason, CTRL + SHIFT + E got into my head as the key combination, but that turns on the Track Changes facility in Word. Instead, CTRL + ALT + 4 does the needful and that is what I will be keeping in mind for future usage.

Killing a hanging SSH session

My web hosting provider offers SSH access that I often use for such things as updating Matomo and Drupal, together with more intensive file moving than an FTP session can support. However, I have found recently that I no longer can exit cleanly from such sessions using the exit command.

Because this produces a locked terminal session, I was keen to find an alternative to shutting down the terminal application before starting it again. Handily, there is a keyboard shortcut that does just what I need.

It varies a little according to the keyboard that you have. Essentially, it combines the carriage return key with ones for the tilde (~) and period (.) characters. The tilde may need to be produced by the combining the shift and backtick keys on some keyboard layouts, but that is not needed on mine. So far, I have found that the <CR>+~+. combination does what I need until SSH sessions start exiting as expected.

Carrying out a hard reset of a home KVM switch

During a recent upgrade from Linux Mint 18 to Linux Mint 18.1 on a secondary machine, I ran into bother with my Startech KVM (keyboard, video, mouse and audio sharing) switch. The PC failed to recognise the attachment of my keyboard and mouse, so an internet search began.

Nothing promising came from it apart from resetting the KVM switch. In other words, the solution was to turn it off and back on again. That was something that I did try unsuccessfully. What I had overlooked was that there were USB connections to PC's that fed the device with a certain amount of power which was enough to keep it on.

Unplugging those USB cables as well as the power cable was needed to completely switch off the device. That provided the reset that I needed, and all was well again. Otherwise, I would have been baffled enough to resort to buying a replacement KVM switch, so the extra information avoided a purchase that could have cost in the region of £100. In other words, a little research had saved me money.

Turning off the full height editor option in WordPress 4.0

Though I casually follow WordPress development, it's not nearly as rigorous as when I submitted a patch that earned me a mention on a main WordPress release's contributor list. This may explain why I barely noticed the full editor setting, which is turned on by default.

WordPress has become so mature now that I almost do not expect major revisions like the overhauls received by the administration back-end in 2008. The second interface was got so right that it still is with us, even if there were concerns in my mind at the time as to how usable it would be. Sometimes, those initial suspicions can come to nothing.

However, WordPress 4.0 introduced a major editor change that I'm not sure is successful. A full-height editor sounds good in principle, but its implementation has rough edges that make me wonder if any UX person reviewed it. Scrolling becomes strange, with the editor's toolbar fixing in place when you scroll down far enough. The sidebar then scrolls out of sync with the editor box, creating an odd sensation. Keyboard shortcuts like CTRL + HOME and CTRL + END don't work properly, which convinced me this new arrangement wasn't for me and I wanted to disable it.

A Google search found nothing useful, so I tried the WordPress.org forum. This revealed I should have looked in the screen options dropdown box for "Expand the editor to match the window height" to deselect it. Because of a Visual Editor control there, I'd checked the user profile screen but found nothing, showing the setup logic is poor. Perhaps the Visual Editor option should be a screen option too. Thankfully, the window height editor setting only needs changing once for both posts and pages, covering all situations.

With a distraction-free editing option available, I'm not sure why someone added the full height editor too. If WordPress keeps this feature, it needs refinement to behave more conventionally. I wouldn't build a website with such ill-synchronised scrolling. This needs work, as does the Visual Editor setting location. Perhaps both settings should be at the user level, rather than having one above that level. Before finding the solution, I considered using distraction-free mode permanently and installed the WP Editor plugin. I kept the plugin for its code highlighting, even though entering code view always creates a new revision. Despite this issue, things are now better.

A look at Emacs

It's remarkable what work can bring your way in terms of technology. For me, (GNU) Emacs Has proved to be such a thing recently. It may have been around since 1975, long before my adventures in computing ever started, in fact, but I am asking myself why I never really have used it much. There are vague recollections of my being aware of its existence in the early days of my using UNIX over a decade ago. Was it a shortcut card with loads of seemingly esoteric keyboard shortcuts and commands that put me off it back then? The truth may have been that I got bedazzled with the world of Microsoft Windows instead, and so began a distraction that lingered until very recently. As unlikely as it looks now, Word and Office would have been part of the allure of what some consider as the dark side these days. O how OpenOffice.org and their ilk have changed that state of affairs...

The unfortunate part of the Emacs story might be that its innovations were never taken up as conventions by mainstream computing. If its counterparts elsewhere used the same keyboard shortcuts, it would feel like learning such an unfamiliar tool. Still, it's not as if there isn't logic behind it because it will work both in a terminal session (where I may have met it for the first time) and a desktop application GUI. The latter is the easier to learn, and the menus list equivalent keyboard shortcuts for many of their entries, too. For a fuller experience though, I can recommend the online manual, and you can buy it in paper form too if you prefer.

One thing that I discovered recently is that external factors can sour the impressions of a piece of software. For instance, I was using a UNIX session where the keyboard mapping wasn't optimal. There's nothing like an unfamiliar behaviour for throwing you off track because you feel that your usual habits are being obstructed. For instance, finding that a Backspace key is behaving like a Delete one is such an obstruction. It wasn't the fault of Emacs, and I have found that using Ctrl+K (C-k in the documentation) to delete whole lines is invaluable.

Apart from keyboard mapping niggles, Emacs has to be respected as a powerful piece of software in its own right. It may not have the syntax highlighting capabilities of some, like gedit or NEdit for instance, but I have a hunch that a spot of Lisp programming would address that need. What you get instead is support for version control systems like RCS or CVS, along with integration with GDB for debugging programs written in a number of languages. Then, there are features like file management, email handling, newsgroup browsing, a calendar and a calculator that make you wonder if they tried to turn a text editor into something like an operating system. With Google trying to use Chrome as the basis of one, it almost feels as is Emacs was ahead of its time, though that may have been more due to its needing to work within a UNIX shell in those far-off pre-GUI days. It really is saying something that it has stood the test of time when so much has fallen by the wayside. Like Vi, it looks as if the esteemable piece of software is showing no signs of going away just yet. Maybe it was well-designed in the beginning, and the thing certainly seems more than a text editor with its extras. Well, it has to offer a good reason for making its way into Linux too...

On keyboards

While there cannot be too many Linux users who go out and partner a Microsoft keyboard with their system, my recent cable-induced mishap has resulted in exactly that outcome. Keyboards are such standard items that it is not so possible to generate any excitement about them, apart from RSI-related concerns. While I wasn't about to go for something cheap and nasty that would do me an injury, going for something too elaborate wasn't part of the plan either, even if examples of that ilk from Microsoft and Logitech were sorely tempting.

Shopping in a bricks and mortar store, like I was, has its pluses and its minuses. The main plus points are that you see and feel what you are buying, with the main drawback being that the selection on offer isn't likely to be as extensive as you'd find on the web, even if I was in a superstore. Despite the latter, there was still a good deal available. Though there were PS/2 keyboards for anyone needing them, USB ones seemed to be the main offer, with wireless examples showcased too. Strangely, the latter were only available as kits with mice included, further adding to the cost of an already none too cheap item. The result was that I wasn't lured away from the wired option.

While I didn't emerge with what would have been my first choice because that was out of stock, that's not to say that what I have doesn't do the job for me. The key action is soft and cushioned, which is a change from that to which I am accustomed; some keyboards feel like they belong on a laptop, but not this one. There are other bells and whistles too, with a surprising number of them working. The calculator and email buttons number among these along with the play/pause, back and forward ones for a media player; I am not so convinced about the volume controls though an on-screen indicator does pop up. You'd expect a Microsoft item to be more Windows specific than others, yet mine works as well as anything else in the Ubuntu world and I have no reason to suspect that other Linux distros would spurn it either. Keyboards tend to be one of those "buy-it-and-forget-it" items, and the new arrival should be no different.