Working from OS 10.4.11 on PowerBook G4, iMac G5, and (early) MacBook. Have noticed while working in Entourage 2004, and possibly in other applications, not sure, that from time to time while typing I will accidentally press a key with my right hand, some key in the vicinity of the 'return' key, which will cause a contiguous string of text to be highlighted and deleted. It happens so quickly that I can never tell which key(s) I pressed to make this happen.

I think what actually happens is that the accidental keypress is causing the highlighting and then as I continue to type the highlighted text is of course deleted.

I can recover from this (once I notice it) by pressing command-z, but would like to prevent it from happening -- if I knew what keystroke is responsible I might be able to disable it, or at least knowing might help me to avoid it.

I've done many google searches and have found nothing relevant. Have also searched these forums and the archive of MacFixIt forums and have found nothing. Any ideas?

Might the accidental keypress be Shift - Up Arrow or Shift - Down Arrow? These will highlight a line of text.

Thank you for the reply. I'll bear that in mind, but am not optimistic. If it were only happening on the laptops then it might be so, but it happens on the desktop too, where the arrow keys are too far a reach to hit accidentally while typing.

I may never figure this out. . . .

I suppose you could install some key-logging software...

You may also want to consider some interaction from the trackpad during the incident. The heel of one's thumbs can easily brush on the trackpad unintentionally when reaching for a key with bad posture. "disable accidental trackpad input" in universal access in case.

I would definitely consider that if it only happened on the two laptops, but it happens on the desktop too where there is no trackpad. It 'feels' like I'm making the same careless mistake on all three Macs, it just goes by too fast to see -- the hand is quicker than the eye.

Thank you all for the replies.

I do this from time to time to pull up the bluetooth setup assistant too. I looked in sys prefs but can't find the shortcut that's causing it. It's usually when I'm haphazardly trying to hide or show the toolbar in finder, which can knot your fingers.

Did you forget your own thread?

open bluetooth setup hotkey?

cmd-shf-B opens the bluetooth file exchange window

I'm somehow opening the bluetooth setup assistant

I'd like to know how to do that from the keyboard anyway because I from time to time have to deal with a computer that has spontaneously lost contact with its wireless mouse.