Skip to main content
Participant
October 30, 2013
Answered

Illustrator CC: text selection not highlighting

  • October 30, 2013
  • 12 replies
  • 134197 views

I have a basic document in Illustrator CC. The document is just text boxes for an organization chart.

When I go to change text in a text box, specifically trying to select text and edit the text - their is no text selection. I cannot go into a text box and double-click to select text, nothing selects and/or their is not selection color.

How do I fix text selection?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Mike_Gondek10189183

Often you may think you have nothing slected, but just the mode for showoing edges has been toggled.

View >> show edges. 

Command H Mac or CTRL H on PC

If you try to select and indeed nothing gets selected (you can hit dlete key as a test adn then undo) could be a number of issues

  1. locked layer
  2. locked object
  3. mask or other item on top is interferring
  4. it is a symbol
  5. it is in an opacity mask
  6. might be in an envelope

12 replies

Participant
October 10, 2014

Command/Control + H  worked perfectly for me!  Thanks a bunch!

Mike_Gondek10189183
Community Expert
Mike_Gondek10189183Community ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
October 30, 2013

Often you may think you have nothing slected, but just the mode for showoing edges has been toggled.

View >> show edges. 

Command H Mac or CTRL H on PC

If you try to select and indeed nothing gets selected (you can hit dlete key as a test adn then undo) could be a number of issues

  1. locked layer
  2. locked object
  3. mask or other item on top is interferring
  4. it is a symbol
  5. it is in an opacity mask
  6. might be in an envelope
Participating Frequently
January 6, 2014

Thanks for your help Mike - I would like to add the explanation why this often gets deselected in the first place.

Since Command + H is the system default in OSX for hiding any application most people try to use this with Illustrator as well, not knowing that they in fact "hide edges" instead.

The solution to this is to go to "Edit/Keyboard short cuts" and add Command + H under "Menu commands/Illustrator" and then save.

---

This is just one of the many Illustrator "features" which makes it such a nuisance to use and I hope the Illustrator developers some day will get in line making Illustrator behave like other Adobe software (Indesign, Photoshop etc.).
(Sorry for venting my frustration, but having hoped for this to happen since CS1 was announced ten years ago, I have come to the point where every Illustrator feature like this just sends me through the roof.)

hristoh42843219
Participant
August 2, 2016

Hiding the selection in text is great when kerning the letters...