Inspiring

Answered

Align to Key Object not working in Illustrator 2020 (24.2)

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
June 16, 2020
49 replies
43276 views

Why change what has always worked so well?

Trying to vertically/horizontally align objects to separate them equally no longer works the way it has for the last 20 years, so, now what? When I try to align object it is requiring a "key object", this is not helpful at all and please tell me there's a way to re-set this back to a legacy setting?

{Renamed by MOD}

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Srishti Bali

Hi there,

Sorry about this trouble. We've fixed the bug with Align tool in the latest release. Please update Illustrator to v24.2.1 to get this fixed.

Here's a link with more details: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-bugs/suggestions/40681714-align-to-key-o...

Regards,

Srishti

K

kristoferv

Participant

Also distribute spacing is not in millimeter, STILL AFTER SEVERAL PEOPLE HAS HIGHLIGHTED THIS FOR 2,3,4 YEARS

Im stuck with 2017 release, it works there.

K

krsfryr

Participant

Still having this issue in v25. Any ideas?

HenryStockCC

Inspiring

I believe it may be necessary to trash your prefs file and start over to get it to work.

carlosNSS

Participating Frequently

Aligning objects and the alignment tools in general are probably Adobe Illustrator's most anemic features. The lack of being able to intuitively select an object, then select another object, click align vertically or horizontally and have that object align to it (key object) fails across the board. Also, why is there still no feature to take two objects and center them on their axis via [X/Y] with the click of a single icon (+ button). This is so counterintuitive, it isn't even funny... yet I've been ignored by the Adobe tech team (pre-release team) for the last decade.

Srishti Bali

Legend

Hi all,

We have recently released an update for Illustrator 2020 (v 24.3) which contains some stability fixes. If you are not already on v24.3, then we recommend you to update to latest version and share your observations with us.

Regards!

K

Kenobi1125

Participating Frequently

Ok, Its been 24 days since you've posted about the stability fixes and yet this align issue is still a problem. I'm on 24.3 and I cannot get that Align to Artboard (why is that even a thing?) to return to the previous default of Align to selection. I've tried in both the Align window and in the tool bar. I've quit, restarted, changed the pref back to Selection, but as soon as I open a file, it defaults back and will NOT change when selected.

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

One change I have noticed between v23 and v24.3 is that when I have a single object selected, the align option is always Align to Artboard. This makes sense as you can't align a single object to selection. But as soon as I select multiple objects, it changes to my previously-used setting of Align to Selection (as it should after the 24.3 fix).

If you're seeing something different, there may be a further problem that requires contacting support (assuming you have already reset preferences and reinstalled).

Bas Spaans

Participant

Reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallyyyy anoyyiiiiiing!

E

elainemlc

Participant

This isn't actually fixed. I am running the latest release v24.2.1. I never use Align to key object and reset it to selection per your instructions and it worked great! But a few days later, I restarted Illustrator and align defaulted back to key object.

I really hope you guys will continue to work on this. thx

A

ADC391

Participant

FIX IT! my god im going insaine having to click this crap everytime.

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

I'm not seeing a problem after updating to 24.2.1. What version are you using?

M

Melooo

Participant

IT DOESN'T WORK! Upgraded at 24.2.1, if I select two or more objects, there are one of them selected as a key yet. THIS IS NOT GOOD AFTER YEARS OF WORKING WITH THE SAME METHOD!

Each update, a DISASTER!

PD

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Quoting from the link posted above:

We have fixed this bug in our latest release – v 24.2.1 which is available worldwide now. Thanks for your patience on this.

Please note that after upgrading you might still see that Align To sets itself to Align to Key Object. If you see this, please manually set the Align To to the required setting, and this reported bug will not happen again. You’ll need to this one time only.

The reason Align To might get set to Key Object after update is because Ai remembers your last Align To on subsequent launches as well. So, if your last Align To was Key Object before quitting/upgrading, after first multi-selection, it will set itself to Key Object. After you manually change it one-time, it will work fine.

You can update to the latest release using Creative Cloud desktop App: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/creative-cloud-updates.html

M

Melooo

Participant

.

calebk14095891

Participating Frequently

Thank you for the update. However the problem is only partly fixed. Selecting multiple objects still frequently selects one object as a key object reguardless if I follow the outlined in the link you posted. I know you all are working on this, and thank you for that, but the problem is still there.

It's not all the time, but now it is more random. I've tried to narrow down what exactly causes it but have been unable to do so. I think it mostly happens either when I'm selecting many different aligning types in quick succession, or if I am doing other things in Ai and then come back to the alignment tool.

For clarity, I have closed the program, downloaded the update, and am now seeing the bug still after re-opening the program.

V

VarunSharma

Participating Frequently

Hi Everyone,

We have fixed this bug in our latest release – v 24.2.1 which is available worldwide now. Thanks for your patience on this.

Please note that after upgrading you might still see that Align To sets itself to Align to Key Object. If you see this, please manually set the Align To to the required setting, and this reported bug will not happen again. You'll need to this one time only.

The reason Align To might get set to Key Object after update is because Ai remembers your last Align To on subsequent launches as well. So, if your last Align To was Key Object before quitting/upgrading, after first multi-selection, it will set itself to Key Object. After you manually change it one-time, it will work fine.

You can update to the latest release using Creative Cloud desktop App: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/creative-cloud-updates.html

Thanks,

Varun

calebk14095891

Participating Frequently

Thank you for the update. However the problem is only partly fixed. Selecting multiple objects still frequently selects one object as a key object reguardless if I follow the instructions you've outlined.

It's not all the time, but now it is more random. I've tried to narrow down what exactly causes it but have been unable to do so. I think it mostly happens either when I'm selecting many different aligning types in quick succession, or if I am doing other things in Ai and then come back to the alignment tool.

For clarity, I have closed the program, downloaded the update, and am now seeing the bug still after re-opening the program.

HenryStockCC

Inspiring

I also have this problem. It is not a workable situation. Please fix
this. Shift selecting two objects SHOULD NOT cause one to automatically
become a key object.

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