Since my last update of Catalina to 10.15.4 the shortcut key for chinese trackpad handwriting doesn't work. Strangely, if I open system preferences/keyboard inputs and highlight trackpad handwriting, it works. But then when I close system preferences it doesn't work.
This is something I use all the time. Any suggestions
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15
See my note below and perhaps that will help you. To restrart in safe mode is a good idea because it erases files that might be corrupted. It's simple to do. Shut down the computer and restart holding down the left-side shift key. See if the keyboard shortcut works in safe mode. You can go back to normal mode by simply restarting the computer. I hope this helps. I am Fred0 on the Chinese-forum if you want to contact me, or just put a message on this page.
To clarify the abnormal behavior I am experiencing, the shortcut key for trackpad handwriting is dead. But if I open the keyboard preferences panel in system preferences, choose the shorcuts tab, and click keybord from the list, at the bottom of the list of keyboard shortcuts displayed is show/hide trackpad handwriting. So long as this panel is displayed, and this is the active window, the shortcut key works. If this window is not active the shortcut key is dead. Trackpad handwriting still opens using the menu command in the languages menu on the menu bar, but then the handwriting window sometimes will not revert to inactive mode by pressing the escape key, and requires that I use command-option-esc to bring up the force quit menu. At that point the handwriting window switches to inactive mode and can be closed.
I just had a long session with Apple in which I went through reseting the PR-RAM and the SMS and rebooted in safe mode. This last seemed to work somehow. But it only worked after I quit my Nisus Writer word processor, So I thought it must be some incompatibility with that. I went to Nisus preferences and checked to see if my short cut command was being high-jacked by Nisus. I couldn't find that command on Nisus list, but after that the trackpad handwriting shortcut started working. I have no rational explanation for any of this, but I hope my report helps someone.
Further problems with trackpad handwriting. Clicking trackpad handwriting will open the trackpad window but then it is impossible to put it in non-writing mode which should happen when you press the esc key. The only way I was able to get out was to command-option-esc key to bring up the force quit window, which then caused trackpad handwriting to go into inactive mode. I can sometime get trackpad handwriting to come up using the keyboard menu in the menu bar and sometimes not.
I have problem calling out the trackpad writing using the shortcut keys after the last OS update. Occasionally, the trackpad will reappear but it's temperamental.
Also, before the OS update, when I wrote in simplified characters, it will automatically change to traditional characters in the prompt (just like the iphone). Now it's lost that ability?
trackpad handwriting keyboard shortcut problem on new catalina version 10.15.4
