typing "fi" while typing in mac mail turns to a "." (period)

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typing "fi" while typing in mac mail turns to a "." (period)

One of the users on my network has a strange issue that has just come up after upgrading to El Capitan. When he's typing in Mac Mail and he's trying to use the character string fi, it turns to a "." for example the word "finish" turns to .nish. Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem. A heart felt thank you for your reply.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, late 2013)

2.3Ghz, Core i7, 16Gb RAM

OS - OS X El Capitan Ver. 10.11.1

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 6, 2015 11:43 AM

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Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

199,434 points

Nov 6, 2015 11:52 AM in response to hkent1

>Sys Pref>Keyboard>Text

verify a text shortcut was not generated.

If not I would be tempted to Try resetting the SMC http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 and

Try resetting NVRAM/PRAM http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

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Answer 2

hkent1 Author

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Nov 6, 2015 11:59 AM in response to leroydouglas

Leroy, thank you for your reply. I looked into the system prefs, keyboard option as you suggested but there were no short cuts created other than whats there by default. The computer is in a different city than I am so I can't run resetting the SMC nor NVRAM from here as I don't have access to the keyboard.

I will forward those suggestions on to the end user for him to execute and get back with the results.

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Answer 3

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Nov 6, 2015 12:11 PM in response to hkent1

Is that user using Textexpander or Typinator?

Is it only happening in Mail?

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Answer 4

hkent1 Author

Level 1

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Nov 6, 2015 12:19 PM in response to Duane

Duane, Thank you for your reply.

No , he’s not using either program you listed and yes it only happens in Mac Mail. He’s also tried using different physical keyboards, the built in one a Mac USB one.

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Answer 5

Duane

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Nov 6, 2015 12:31 PM in response to hkent1

What about QuicKeys?

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Answer 6

hkent1 Author

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Nov 6, 2015 12:38 PM in response to Duane

Duane, thank you for your reply.

Are you referring to the keyboard short cuts by going to Sys Prefs -> keyboard ?

If so I've already checked them. They're all default.

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Answer 7

Duane

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Nov 6, 2015 12:40 PM in response to hkent1

No, there is an application called QuicKeys.

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Answer 8

hkent1 Author

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Nov 6, 2015 12:41 PM in response to Duane

no, he's not using any application to help with keyboard operations.

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Answer 9

Nov 6, 2015 12:50 PM in response to hkent1

If the fi ligature is not available in the font in which he is composing, a default character will be substituted. Often that is OpenBox. In this case, I guess it is period.

I think if your user wants to include ligatures, he must be first certain he is composing in Rich Text mode, and that the font used for composing actually includes the ligatures he wants to include.

Perhaps Tom Gewecke will stop by with his expert opinion.

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Answer 10

hkent1 Author

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Nov 6, 2015 1:00 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant, thank you for replying.

He doesn't want a ligature. He wants the "fi" to be "fi". If you're alluding to using a different font, we've tried that as well. In fact 3 different fonts to no avail.

He's an architect and uses the word "finish" all day long. As in :"finish the project", or the "finish on the interior wall" but can't get the word or words like them (find, fill, etc.. ) to work correctly when corresponding with clients, contractors and other architects.

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Answer 11

Nov 6, 2015 10:01 PM in response to hkent1

That may be the reverse problem. Perhaps there is a spelling corrector that is taking out f+i and inserting the fi ligature. Now I understand what Duane was getting at in his suggestions above.

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Answer 12

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Nov 7, 2015 6:13 AM in response to hkent1

It is extremely weird that it is happening only in Mail. Apps like QuicKeys allows you to implement a set of changes based on the app that is running. The system shortcuts take place everywhere.

Does it happen when he pastes text into Mail?

I guess a couple workarounds could be:

use another email app (Thunderbird for example)
compose the text in textedit (or another text/word processor) and then copy the text into mail.

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Answer 13

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,258 points

Nov 7, 2015 10:56 AM in response to hkent1

hkent1 wrote:

One of the users on my network has a strange issue that has just come up after upgrading to El Capitan. When he's typing in Mac Mail and he's trying to use the character string fi, it turns to a "."

Could be a bad font. Change it to Lucida Grande and see what happens.

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