# Mac Question: Keyboard characters screwed up

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-question-keyboard-characters-screwed-up/300525>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 22, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-question-keyboard-characters-screwed-up/300525 "2005-04-22T01:04:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-question-keyboard-characters-screwed-up/300525/1 "2005-04-22T01:04:13Z")

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I have an iMac G4 running OS 9.1. Some of mz…er, **my** keyboard characters are screwz…as zou can see the Z character types Y, and all of the punctuation keys are mixed up…anz…SHIT…any ideas? It¨s drivin mz crayz+

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**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-question-keyboard-characters-screwed-up/300525/2 "2005-04-22T02:20:12Z")

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Try cleaning your keyboard. My old Mac did this when I spilled coffee on the keyboard.

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**Author:** ![wheelie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b4bc9f/32.png) [@wheelie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheelie)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-question-keyboard-characters-screwed-up/300525/3 "2005-04-22T05:42:02Z")

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Check the settings in your keyboard control panel. Apple\>Control Panels\>Keyboard.  
Pressing command-space rotates the keyboard layout, maybe that’s what caused this?

BTW, why are you still using OS9? Tiger comes out next week!