black box in OSX
June 20, 2005 11:31 AM   Subscribe

Using Mac OSX. I'm getting an annoying black outline around random stuff in the GUI-- like it was highlighting something, but it seems random and I can't control it. For instance, it's around the entry field of "short title for your question" as I'm typing this. It shows up around the "back" button of the file browser if the browser is active. And most annoyingly, it shows up as a thinnish column in QuarkXpress that is the height of the display. What is it and how do I get rid of it?
posted by Mayor Curley to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)
 
Huh. It sounds like the focus blue-glow (bottom right of the page), but broken. Are you using a theming engine like Shapeshifter?
posted by Popular Ethics at 11:38 AM on June 20, 2005


System Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts > Full keyboard access is set to "All controls", possibly?
posted by cillit bang at 11:38 AM on June 20, 2005


Did you try restarting Finder?
posted by unixrat at 11:58 AM on June 20, 2005


I assume this problem survives reboots?

First, the standard questions:
  1. What version of Mac OS X?
  2. Which Mac model?
  3. Which video card? (Apple Menu > About This Mac, click More Info)
  4. Did problem start after a recent software/hardware upgrade?
This sounds like a video driver issue, and could be the result of an incompatibility. (Full keyboard access draws either a blue or gray glow around UI elements, depending on the chosen OS appearance -- Blue or Graphite.)

Standard troubleshooting steps:
  1. Start up with extensions off by holding down the Shift key during startup. If problem disappears, then cause is a 3rd-party extension.
  2. Create a new user account, reboot with extensions ON, and log in to new account. If problem disappears, then it is related to your user profile -- most likely a corrupt .plist file.

posted by pmbuko at 12:22 PM on June 20, 2005


Sounds like you have VoiceOver turned on, but have your sound muted, so you can't hear it. You can turn it off in System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing
posted by influx at 6:04 PM on June 20, 2005


press apple F5. It's voiceover, like influx says.
posted by bonaldi at 6:06 PM on June 20, 2005


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