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navysisomphou
Participant
September 28, 2022
Open for Voting

ESC to leave text editor, like in Ai, Ps, and iD

  • September 28, 2022
  • 22 replies
  • 3764 views
In Photoshop, Illustrator, and inDesign, you can leave the text editor with the ESC key. In some instances, it even switches to the move tool simultaneously. Typography is such a huge part of motion graphics so having the ability to edit and move text around quickly is incredibly valuable.

Right now, in AE, hitting ESC after editing a line of text undoes any changes. This is especially frustrating when I've spent time meticulously formatting and kerning characters and then all that work is gone in an instant. Command+Z doesn't bring it back!

I'm aware that Command+Enter will keep changes made to a text layer, but Adobe has already built this muscle memory of pressing ESC in the other apps. And getting my left hand to hit Command+Enter is such an awkward motion (and I'm a lefty!!!).

This probably falls under the request to have ESC as a custom hotkey, but I think it should be addressed regardless.

22 replies

jstrawn
Community Manager
Community Manager
September 28, 2022
In PrPro graphics, we use escape to deactivate the caret to get you out of input mode so your keys will work as hot keys again. That way you can at least press esc then press v to switch right to the selection (arrow) tool. I like the idea of switching to that automatically, but you may just as likely want the razor or some other tool in Pr so I think it's best as is. At any rate, I agree with you about hitting ESC and undoing changes in Ae = frustrating. It seems like there is an opportunity for improvement (and parity here, so you have my +1.
navysisomphou
Participant
September 28, 2022
Oh, and I don't always have a keyboard with a Num pad... in case someone brings that up.