ah. laptop keyboard - no separate num pad:
'num lock' locks out the rest of the keyboard whilst allowing only the embedded number keys. i hit it on all the time by accident when using keyboard shortcuts - my letter keys then go AWOL until i realise what's happened (which is pretty quickly now

)
sorry for the confusion . . .
~/archiben
b e n _ f r o s t
b f [a t ] p l a n b a r c h i t e c t u r e [d o t] n z
archicad | sketchup | morpholio | phpp