Notepad++: Ctrl-S does not Save, instead inserts [DC3]; Ctrl-F inserts [ACK]

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16

I've been using Notepad++ more as my primary code editor. Just a few minutes ago, however, I accidentally pressed some combination of keys (no idea what I pressed) and suddenly my standard shortcut keys no longer work.

When I press Ctrl-S, it doesn't save my document; instead it inserts this funky little "DC3" character (looks like a rounded black rectangle with white text inside). When I press Ctrl-F (the Find key) I get a similar "ACK" symbol.

The only answer I've found on the web has to do with changing your shortcut key mappings; however my shortcut key mappings have NOT CHANGED at all, they are still set as they should be, with Ctrl-S mapping to "Save" and Ctrl-F mapping to "Find..".

I've clearly switched to some bizarre alternate key mode, but I have no idea what that might be or how to get rid of it.

Update: I've played around a bit more to see what other shortcuts are broken. So far, they all seem to be, except for the Windows standard ones like "Ctrl-X" and "Ctrl-V". Here's a sampling:

KEY             Should Do:            Current Behavior:

Ctrl-Tab        Cycle open tabs       <does nothing>
Ctrl-W          Close current tab     [ETB]
Ctrl-N          Open New tab          [SO]
Ctrl-O          File Open window      [SI]
Ctrl-A          Select All            [DC3]
Ctrl-Z          Undo                  <Works as expected>
Ctrl-C          Copy selection        <Works as expected>
Ctrl-U          Make lowercase        [NAK]

Brian Lacy

Posted 2010-11-15T17:01:26.877

Reputation: 2 572

(By the way, the symbols are abbreviations of the ASCII control codes.)

– Bavi_H – 2010-11-16T05:04:18.837

I think it's an notepad++ runtime error. I've met the same pb as yours serveral minutes ago, and it works correctly now. – Jiangong SUN – 2011-08-30T09:43:09.860

Answers

88

Ok, this is pretty pathetic. But it's possible some other moron could run into this issue so I feel justified in posting.

A few minutes ago I did a "Replace all" in my current document. Apparently, the dialog window informing me that "# occurrences were replaced" was hidden under another window, so I never closed it.

And apparently, when that little window remains open, pressing shortcut keys with the main editor window in focus causes those funky results.

It's strange behavior, to be sure, but it's still a pretty newb-ish scenario. Ah well.

Brian Lacy

Posted 2010-11-15T17:01:26.877

Reputation: 2 572

Ha, I saw this as well when trying to install a large number of plugins (that ended up taking forever to fail due to bad proxy settings). – admdrew – 2014-07-11T15:21:49.633

i just experienced the same thing with ACK being inserted on Ctrl- F. I installed SherloXplorer (very nice plugin), but did not re-start Notepad++. It was fixed after re-starting. – carrabino – 2014-12-14T15:15:43.750

I ran into this issue with version 7.5.7, but the above solution did not apply (no dialog box was open). To fix: I closed all open files, closed NPP, reopened, typed a few characters into the blank document, and hit CTRL+ALT+S to "Save as...". – James – 2018-07-26T16:30:37.340

5Does this mean you didn't try restarting the software? :P – Phoshi – 2010-11-15T17:31:53.827

2+1 Thanks! This is actually quite easy to do... to get a dialog or small prompt stuck behind the main window, since they aren't modal. eg. Ctrl+F and search for 'raspberry' - a small postage stamp sized non-modal prompt appears "Can't find the text...". Click back in the Find dialog (perhaps by mistake) without responding to the prompt and the small prompt vanishes to the back and remains open. Close the Find dialog; small prompt remains open. – MrWhite – 2010-12-07T13:16:36.613

I recently had this issue with a crashing plugin (DSpellCheck I think, when opening a curl response containing a gzipped body). The crash pop-up was displayed several times and one of them stayed behind the main window (I think after I moved to something else). I am not able to reproduce the issue any more though (the plugin does not crash). Anyway, was the issue reported? I don't find it.

– Didier L – 2020-01-08T11:00:06.253

11+1, Totally worth posting. This just happened to me a minute ago. The "ACK" char was certainly not what I expected. – FrustratedWithFormsDesigner – 2011-01-12T19:18:53.130

1Had some stupid dialog boxes hiding behind the editor window. Clicked OK to close them and Ctrl+C works agian. Thanks! – Rush Frisby – 2012-04-06T18:54:39.927

Funky - Monkeys, Jungle Jump... – n611x007 – 2012-10-24T07:11:51.803

1

Check the language bar. It's possible you set the language or keyboard differently for that application.

Do any other applications have this issue?

Broam

Posted 2010-11-15T17:01:26.877

Reputation: 3 831

I checked in Notepad and a few other text apps, as well as my IM program. The shortcuts behave as expected. All other settings appear to be the same. Good ideas though! Thanks. – Brian Lacy – 2010-11-15T17:12:17.583

2Language bar in Windows can be per-application. – Broam – 2010-11-15T21:47:08.177

0

I had a similar issue just now caused by a different problem.

Make sure your file is not set to read-only. :)

azurry

Posted 2010-11-15T17:01:26.877

Reputation: 306