Macbook Question/Printer Question

[kaneohe]

We have a MacBook 2-3 yrs old. On the top right hand side of the display are a bunch of black symbols including what looks like a clock, a vertical stack of bars forming a segment of a circle that denotes the wi-fi connection, a loudspeaker, and some other stuff , as well as the day of wk/time. All are black. Today a picture of the flag in red/white/blue shows up there. what is it?

Unrelated to the Mac.......I have an old Lexmark printer that has a 4 colors in 1 cartridge (black + 3 colors). All I use it for is text and spreadsheets so only black ink is used. When the black ink is gone, will it try to print using the remaining available ink or will it just stop printing.

 

[CuppaJoe]

We have a MacBook.... Today a picture of the flag in red/white/blue shows up there. what is it?
....

I just started using it. Click on the flag and get special characters to spell words like mañana.

 

[M Paquette]

We have a MacBook 2-3 yrs old. On the top right hand side of the display are a bunch of black symbols including what looks like a clock, a vertical stack of bars forming a segment of a circle that denotes the wi-fi connection, a loudspeaker, and some other stuff , as well as the day of wk/time. All are black. Today a picture of the flag in red/white/blue shows up there. what is it?

That's the International Input Menu. Click on it, and you'll get a menu. The 'Show Character Palette' item gets you a palette of different math, arrow, currency, punctuation, and other symbols.

Click on the bottom item, 'Show International...' and you'll launch System Preferences, open to the International preferences view. At the bottom left of that view (verified on 10.5.8; May vary on other OS versions) is a checkbox 'Show input menu in menu bar.' Uncheck this to make the flag go away, if you don't want that menu.

 

[kaneohe]

Once again, the mysterious is no longer! Thanks, CJ and MP.

 

[RonBoyd]

Unrelated to the Mac.......I have an old Lexmark printer that has a 4 colors in 1 cartridge (black + 3 colors). All I use it for is text and spreadsheets so only black ink is used. When the black ink is gone, will it try to print using the remaining available ink or will it just stop printing.

Old? And you are still on the first ink cartridge?

I don't know about this specific printer but most printers will act as you suspect. However, there are quite a number that use the colored ink in a mixture to make black. (I think this is to "keep things balanced" so that the consumer doesn't rise up in revolt at having to throw away something.) The really answer will only come when you push on until the printer "runs out of ink" and then drill holes in the side of the cartridge where the colored ink is and see what falls out.

 

[kaneohe]

Thanks for the info, Ron.

OK, pushing on then.......I don't use it very much and hate to order something in advance (cheaper online, & in case printer (or computer) dies before it really needs ink). The computer screen is showing an ink low message which is a bit subtle .........only found out this yr that it existed. This is quite unlike my newer Canon which sounds fire alarms and fires strobes so that you can't miss it unless your eyes and ears are closed. I've probably changed the cartridge once but it's been so long ago that I forgot how it happened.