How I fixed the missing shortcuts in InDesign CS4

Question

Today, I got hit by the 'missing shortcut' syndrome on my Windows install of InDesign CS4 - all menu items were totally void of any shortcut. Even cut, copy, paste had no more shortcut keys - Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V didn't do a thing.
I tried fixing it via the Edit - Keyboard Shortcuts... menu, but there I could not even see a set name, and there was nothing I could do.
Ok, tried resetting the preferences - no joy.
Ok, tried wiping the 'Version 6.0' folders from the hidden folders where preferences were stored - no joy.
I got out some diagnostic tools, and noticed InDesign was trying (and failing) to access a folder called
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS4\Presets\InDesign Shortcut Sets\en_US
I checked it out - I did not have a folder called en_US in
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS4\Presets\InDesign Shortcut Sets
but I did have a folder called en_GB
Hmmm....
I opened an Explorer window into the InDesign Shortcut Sets folder, and I made a copy of the folder en_GB and renamed it to en_US.
Relaunch InDesign and bingo - all is well!
Looks like InDesign is getting confused between British and US English - probably it got installed as British English, then decided it rather be US English. Why that'd be - no idea.
So, here's what you can try if your shortcut keys suddenly disappear on you:
1) Navigate to the Adobe InDesign CS4 folder
2) Go into the Presets folder
3) Go into the InDesign Shortcut Sets folder
4) If you see a folder called 'en_GB', but no folder called 'en_US', make a copy of the en_GB and rename the copy to en_US. Possibly the reverse could also happen - you see en_US, you might want to try and copy it to en_GB.
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Kris

Answer 1

Thanks for responding.
I had all the Symptoms you list and Kris's solution sorted them out. (It's well worth keeping a backup of those folders.)
However, I found I still had problems that may or may not be related (sorry if this is off topic). Most notably "Registration…",  "Deactivate…" and "Updates…"  buttons greyed out in InDesign, Photoshop etc. and from Task Manager I noticed that the processes would not stop when you quit these programs. Also Distiller refused to start.
After wasting further time I made a few complaints and was finally allocated a tech person in Adobe support who was actually very helpful. By remote control he deleted the hidden file adobe_00080000_tsf data from the hidden folder C:\ProgramData\FLEXnet. We then started InDesign and I had to enter my Serial No. and register again.
This pretty well fixed the other problems above for a day or two then I started getting "Unable to find "Adobe PDF" resource files." This was fixed by another helpful tech person in Adobe support who, by remote control had a poke around in the <C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe \Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\AMT> folder and surprisingly everything started to work properly again. I don't think he even moved or deleted anything but the whole suite has been trouble free for over a week now.
Hope this helps someone.
Kainga