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Tabs, Backspace, Delete and other commands not working in the editor

Several people have been reporting problems on MSDN Product Feedback with Visual Studio Beta 2 in which the Editor stops responding to most commands but still allows typing.  The good news is that we have identified a fix for the issue, we know how to prevent it and how to get out of the state when it happens.    The problem stems from auto-hiding tool windows stealing focus from the editor without actually popping up.  To avoid the issue, try not set tool windows to Auto-hide.  If you do happen to run into this issue despite the previous advice, then the easiest way to get out of the situation is to activate the tool window by clicking on the tab and then clicking the X in the top right hand corner to close it. 

Sean Laberee
Visual Studio Editor Team

Published Thursday, May 12, 2005 6:52 PM by VSEditor

Comments

Thursday, May 12, 2005 10:53 PM by VSEditor

# re: Tabs, Backspace, Delete and other commands not working in the editor

One of our MVPs just informed me that you don't have to close the tool window, you can also give it focus, hit Alt+Enter and then give focus back to the editor.
Friday, May 13, 2005 5:53 AM by barrkel

# re: Tabs, Backspace, Delete and other commands not working in the editor

It's caused in other scenarios as well. When plugins try to set focus to the editor, often the "command" focus (the ones that can be bound using Tools | Options | Keyboard) isn't on the editor, only the "text" focus (the ordinary typed in characters like A-Z, 0-9, symbols etc.) is set on the text editor.

When you say you have the fix, is it now the case that the two different focuses can never get out of sync again?
Monday, May 16, 2005 10:42 AM by VSEditor

# re: Tabs, Backspace, Delete and other commands not working in the editor

Yes, these two should no longer be able to get out of sync.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005 3:40 AM by ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog

# Visual Studio 2005 Keyboard Locks Up

Thursday, August 11, 2005 8:47 PM by Being Scott Densmore

# The Answer to "Why do my keys stop working in Visual Studio 2005 ?"


We have been using Visual Studio 2005 for a while.  We seem to keep having this problem with...
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 1:11 PM by Hello??? .... is this thing on??

# Tabs, Backspace, Delete and other commands not working in the editor

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 1:34 PM by Blue Fenix

# Visual Studio Editor, how you mock me.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 1:51 PM by Blue Fenix

# Visual Studio Editor, how you mock me.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006 2:22 PM by Christopher

# Visual Studio Editor, how you mock me.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006 9:26 AM by What I Learnt At Work Today

# Delete and return keys not working in Visual Studio 2005

I had some strange issues on my laptop with Visual Studio 2005 - the delete and return keys didn't work,

Wednesday, February 07, 2007 11:05 AM by Visual Studio.NET

# Can't backspace in Visual 2005 - Auto-Hide Oddities

This morning I discovered I could enter code to VS but couldn't backspace over it. This would require

Sunday, February 25, 2007 6:51 PM by (z)aKKum’s (bLog) » Blog Archive » Visual Studio Bugfix

# (z)aKKum’s (bLog) » Blog Archive » Visual Studio Bugfix

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Wednesday, May 16, 2007 4:36 AM by zaKKum’s bLog » Blog Archive

# zaKKum’s bLog » Blog Archive

PingBack from http://blog.zakkum.com/?p=4

Thursday, May 15, 2008 7:09 AM by keyboard arrow keys not working

# keyboard arrow keys not working

PingBack from http://janet.clearviewaccess.info/keyboardarrowkeysnotworking.html

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