Community Expert

Answered

Stop the beeping!!!

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
May 5, 2010
60 replies
137364 views

Seems like if I have something selected and use the keyboard shortcut to zoom in, the hold space bar to get the Hand tool, Illustrator CS 5 beeps. There seems to be so much beeping in the app that I've turned my sound off.

Any way to stop the beeping aside from not using the tools Illustrator gave us!?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer

Only satisfying solution (apart from installing additional software) that I've found is to just use Alt Gr+scroll instead of alt+scroll. Alt Gr doesnt seem to activate the menu.

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1

147potatocakes

Participant

My solution is to quickly click on any empty space after zooming - that then sets the focus to my page instead of the menu bar. It takes some getting-used-to though.

N

nomes123

Participant

Hi, i have a similar problem, but only in photoshop CS6. Im working on Mac 3,7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5, OS X 10.9.2 (13C64). Sometimes when i resize, edit, or do whatever with a layer when finished editing I press enter it want accept, i just here beep sound. It just want stop using the layer. Can't switch to any other tool using shortcuts (V,A,M..... ) Im not using the zoom tool some of you mentioned. How do I stop the beep sound and how do I make it choose tools using shortcuts??????Adobe!!!!!!

MicahBurke

Author

Community Expert

Hi nomes123,

This may be a different issue than the one discussed in the thread. You might inadvertently be selecting the crop tool. I have this issue but I'm using CC now. Try manually selecting the pointer tool and trying again. Also, I've noticed a problem with the control key getting stuck on. Might check into that.

Micah

K

kratznick

Participant

I've noticed there isn't a real solution posted here. . . After encountering the same issue myself I think I fixed it. You basically need to disable the sound itself at the source.

Control Panel>Sounds>change system sounds>default beep>change the sound from "windows ding" to "none">apply changes and enjoy a beep free experience.

This allows you to hit alt and whatever other keys you like without hearing the unavoidable error beep. Does not change any functionality, everything works as it should.

Cheers.

MicahBurke

Author

Community Expert

> You basically need to disable the sound itself at the source.

NO NO NO. Kill this thread.

The solution is to use alt-shift-scrollwheel rather than the old alt-scrollwheel. Using alt activates the menus. Note that the original post (mine) was 3 years ago.

The problem was not the beeping, per-se, but the activation of the menus by hitting the alt-key, a function that started in CS5. Telling folks to disable their sound is not a solution. Thanks for trying.

C

CrunchTime

Participant

LOL. Yeah, I totally get it. I really am glad I wasn't the only one affected by this. It was such a wacky change that it frustrated the hell out of me. I even chatted with the Illustrator team at AdobeMAX 2010. They were baffled. I got in on the CS6 beta and found the problem still existed, that's when someone said to use the alt-shift-scroll.

In PS CS5, this plagued me for longer than I care to admit. Also, alt activated menus introduce a bug where changing brush size/hardness, via hotkey, switches to your previous tool. This really makes painting/sampling/erasing erratic and painful. There is a great solution to be found here. It gives you the option to turn off/on alt > menu activation, which I think is what people have really wanted.

There are perhaps a few folks who like the idea of programs strictly adhering to OS design decisions, but I think more users are interested in programs which simply work well based on the tasks being performed. I've personally never met anyone who was excited about this change, but everyone I've ever worked with has complained about the alt key's power to create a confusing and disruptive work flow (post CS4). It's sad to see that "Adobe knows best" in this case, when I doubt that their engineers/project managers moonlight as professional Photoshop users.

Unfortunately this fix is only for PS... So illustrator users will have to conform or use other workarounds like AHK. Also, I can't say if it works with CS6 or not. I'm not seeing a benefit in paying more money to a company disinterested in empowering its userbase.

N

Nivrot

Participant

Deactivate "Default Beep" in Windows Sound settings.

Works well. Unless you are dependant on beeps in other contexts.

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

why do people keep answering with this?

the problem for me, coming from CS3, was that i was unexpectedly selecting the menu bar all the time. if i tried to use a shortcut immediately after, it'd activate a menu item rather than doing what i expected. the problem is worse in indesign because you can't just click on your document to have the menu deselect - you have to press alt again.

CarlosCanto

Community Expert

people keep suggesting silly fixes because people don't read the whole thread to realize what the problem is.

A

Anonymous

Just started using the CS6 trial...

This problem has not been fixed at all, in any application. Just mind-boggling how they have missed this.

MicahBurke

Author

Community Expert

Yes, the issue has been carried over into CS6. During the beta I did post this as a bug, but it was set to deferred. I believe this indicates that this is the way Adobe wants it now. The fix is to use Alt-Left Shift-Scroll Wheel

:-P

L

lmaclanphere

Inspiring

I would suggest holding "Z" plus left mouse n drag. Get used to it pretty quick. Zooms to mouse pointer, more or less.

OH SHAZ!! this only works in photoshop, NOT ILLUSTRATOR. now to go hang myself.

S

strong_Ripple0D4A

Participant

I've also experienced the same beeping and i got to this forum.

In InDesign CS5 if I use Alt+space to get the free hand it beeps like hell, if I simply use space outside text or image, or even on pasteboard i get the free hand and it doesn't sound at all.

Mellifluous-Irony

Participating Frequently

(Requires Windows and Autohotkey)

My original script had an issue with alt+shift for resizing shapes.

This new script sends escape after you release alt, which resolves that;

and it only functions while illustrator is the active window.

You don't need to be a programmer to follow the first fives steps here:

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Tutorial.htm

and then copy and paste the script below.

If you can use illustrator, you can install a program and copy / paste some text into notepad.

#IfWinActive, ahk_class illustrator

~alt up::Send, {Esc}

#IfWinActive

MicahBurke

Author

Community Expert

Is it working in 64bit?

Mellifluous-Irony

Participating Frequently

Yes I use Autohotkey_L (essentially a version that is updated by a community pro)

which allows you to choose "Unicode (64bit)" during installation.

The interpreter is incredibly fast, and lightweight,

so you don't have to worry about it affecting computer performance.

Making it work only while illustrator is active

allows you to just forget about the script instead of having to suspend it,

or close it, when you switch to another program.

A

AlfMoo

Participant

Hello Everybody!

My English is not well, and it is seems some late, but I can help to somebody with this problem from now.

My point is change ALT keys scancodes, but change they simple.

You have to create text file in Notepad, and make its extension to .reg. Than, put into the file these strings:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]

"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,38,E0,38,00,38,00,38,E0,00,00,00,00

Save the file, close Notepad and dobleclick the file. It puts codes in your Registry, after this you have to reboot your computer.

Enjoy!

AlexMoo

MicahBurke

Author

Community Expert

The problem with that is that it changes the default behavior in other applications. I don't want to change other applications, I want Illustrator to work the way it used to.

MicahBurke

Author

Community Expert

Actually, a previous poster got this one... the "new" combo is Alt-LeftShift-Scroll. Works great, no beeping. Now to retrain the fingers.

E

EverythingUnavailable

Participant

This drives me INSANE!!!!!!! Usually I just hit alt everytime it beeps and then go about my business, but whenever I have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time- EVERYTHING I TRY TO DO IS THWARTED!!!! I use quick keys/ short cuts constantly, and every other one I hit beeps, and I imagine strangling some digital computer monkey to death. If someone can fix this, PLEASE DO!

S

Smorgasbord9

Participating Frequently

To any who may still be experiencing this problem, there is an identical thread here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3092204

If you don't want to read the entire thing, the fixes developed in that thread are now hosted here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cs5altfix/

S

snowbordnbum

Participant

Hello. I am also being driven mad by the relentless beeping in photoshop 5. This never happened before in any other version and has pretty much rendered photoshop useless to me as I use only hotkeys to do speed photo editing. Unlike everyone here that is trying to zoom, I am using alt+shift hotkeys to access menus for photo image editing. Every time I use alt anything the menu bar is highlighted and I get a beep when trying to use the next hotkey. Disabling the beep sound does not help because then I will not know which hotkeys actually took effect as I am editing through pictures quickly. I tried downloading the disable alt key program but it also disabled some hotkeys and still didn’t work entirely when I used hotkeys that had shift+alt, for some reason this went back to highlighting the menu bar. Additionally my virus program said it was a virus when I downloaded, which was unnerving. I tried the hotkeys program too but I am not a programmer, couldn’t figure out how to use it. Is there any update from adobe on fixing this? It seems like an easy patch would eliminate this problem which has rendered a very expensive program practically useless, unless you don’t mind taking twice as long to do everything.

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