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Lechty
Lechty
Participant
November 19, 2019
Question

Can´t move selected points by entering X- or Y-values, whole object moves

  • November 19, 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 870 views

I´ve been using Illustrator for many years and have previously never had a problem moving only selected anchor points on a path by entering X- or Y-values.

 

Now it doesn´t work, which is very frustrating.

 

When I select a few anchor points on a path it is possible to exclusively move these selected points, by click and drag. But, when I try to move the selected points by entering new X- or Y-values, the entire object moves.

 

Here is how it looks:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a6r8hjymitm22u0/illustrator_pionts_moved.mov?dl=0

 

I guess/hope this is a matter of preferences or changes in the version of Illustrator I currently use, and hope that someone can help me solve this!

 

 

[Moved it from InDesign to Illustrator Community by MOD]

This topic has been closed for replies.

5 replies

Sergey Osokin
Sergey Osokin
Inspiring
March 27, 2024

Better late than never. It's been four years and it's unlikely that anything will change. But I also needed such a feature, so I wrote a free script SetPointsCoordinates.  In it, you can specify the exact coordinates of the selected anchor points, or you can move the points by delta using -- and ++ in front of the number.

Q
QRS Creative
Participant
April 6, 2023

I am also experiencing this issue, and agree with Lechty that this behavior is the opposite of what you'd expect in Illustrator, and undermines the specific functionality that the direct selection tool is meant to have. The fact that it works differently, but better in InDesign, is yet another example of how Adobe has miserably failed to make a suite of products that work seamlessly together. What's the point of a forced subscription if users have to learn entirely different workflows for the same tool across various programs?

 

Here's a video of the behavior as I experienced it:
https://capture.dropbox.com/POqhvYLQ8DaOb20P

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 26, 2019

The XY coordinates you change are the XY coordinates of the bounding box of the entire object.

Lechty
LechtyAuthor
Participant
November 27, 2019

Now I know what happens; I use InDesign as regularly as Illustrator, and in InDesign it works the way I describe.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gk9qk6eqvdvn41p/indesign_points_moved.mov?dl=0

 

When you use the direct selection tool on points on a path in InDesign, you can move the specific points selected by entering x- or y-values. This is not the case when using the same tool on the same drawing and points in Illustrator, there you can move the individual, selected, points manually, by dragging them. But, when you enter x- or y-values you move the entire object. 

 

The InDesign behaviour to me seems to be the logical way the Direct Selection tool should work. If I would like to move the whole object I would use the standard Selection tool (not the Direct Selection).

 

It´s also odd that the two Adobe applications works in different ways in this matter.

 

So, I still hope that I have missed something and that there is a way of having Illustrator work in the same way as InDesign?

 

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 27, 2019

    Yes, InDesign does it in a different and better way.

    I don't know of a way to get the same behaviour in Illustrator, but you can make a feature request here:

    https://illustrator.uservoice.com

      Ton Frederiks
      Community Expert
      Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 26, 2019

      It looks like normal behaviour.

      If you think this has changed, can you try it in an older version and show how that worked?

      Ton Frederiks
      Community Expert
      Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 19, 2019

      It works for single anchor points.

      Which version do you use?

      Did you try it in an older version?

        Lechty
        LechtyAuthor
        Participant
        November 26, 2019

        It has always been working, but it doesn´t now, as the screen clip shows. My version of Illustrator is 22.1 and I think is the latest I can use on my system (OS X El Capitan 10.11.6). Am I missing something, perhaps a preference that should be changed?

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