Ctrl+Z with caps lock on not working in Chrome

Report · Aug 08, 2017

Hi,

I'm facing a problem when I try to undo/redo a text change inside a text area or text input. Both Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y aren't working properly when caps lock is on.

The problem seems to occur only in Chrome. Using Firefox or Safari I did not have any problems. I also tested in two different OS: Windows and Mac (same problem in both).

I found out that in version 23.0.0.185 a similar problem with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V was fixed (Caps lock ON Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V not working ). Maybe it is something related.

I'm using Chrome version 60.0.3112.90 and Flash Player version 26.0.0.151.

Does anyone have an idea of what is happening and what can I do?

Report · Aug 08, 2017

As far as I know, Flash-based textfields have never supported Ctrl-Z/Ctrl-Y. I double checked my assumption by looking at older versions, with and without caps-lock, and I can't find evidence of it working. If memory serves, this is one of the limitations of being a plug-in. Either the OS or browser intercepts those keystrokes, so we don't see them.

If you're really 100% sure that this used to work, it's possible that someone extended our basic textfield by doing something clever, but they would have had to have gone out of their way to do that.

A link to an example that reproduces the problem would be helpful in understanding what's actually going on.

Report · Aug 09, 2017

Actually, I'm using the Flex components for text input and text area. Sorry for not informing you this before. To be honest, I don't know if there is any difference between Flex and Flash regarding this behavior.

About the browser or the OS are intercepting the strokes, I think that maybe not because the Chrome shortcut to redo is Ctrl+Shift+Z, and I use the Ctrl+Y (with caps lock off) inside my text area, but I may be wrong.

I don't know if this used to work before, but I know that if I turn off the caps lock, the shortcuts will work.

You can reproduce the problem with the text area example inside this link, at the end of the page: TextArea - Adobe ActionScript® 3 (AS3 Flex) API Reference

Report · Aug 09, 2017

Yes, that makes a lot more sense. The Flex framework provides all of the undo/redo functionality. Flex itself reached it's end of life back around 2011, when it was donated to the Apache Flex foundation, which currently maintains it. (see http://flex.apache.org)

You're welcome to file a bug on this issue over at tracker.adobe.com.

My suspicion is that Chrome has changed to disambiguate Ctrl-Z, Shift + Ctrl-Z and Caps Lock + Ctrl-Z. I'm pretty sure that we just started handling that additional case when fixing the previous bug.

In this instance, since this is *Flex* not recognizing a keystroke, a fix may require updating the Flex framework itself. This is something that would only happen in the Apache variants, should they choose to take that issue up. It's also possible, but less likely, that its a problem that we've introduced recently that deals specifically with how Flash Player is processing those keystrokes. Intuitively, this seems extremely unlikely, as that code is very mature.

We'd be more than happy to have someone take a look and get a definitive answer. The best way to do that, since that might take a while, is to file a bug and subscribe for updates.

Thanks!