Adobe Illustrator text tool not working. I can't change the size of the text box.

Question

When I use the text in adobe illustrator it usually works for about the first 20 minutes of my project and then out of nowhere it quits working right. What happens is it seems like the text box is getting locked into the size that I make it, and I can't change the size of the text box.

A green box is surrounding the text and there are four points to change the text box size, one on each corner but it won't allow me to change the box size with any of those moving points, and then the dots that are usually in the middle of each line of the box surrounding the text are not even there so I can't take the box down to the size of the text to make placing it in my project easier.

So what happens is when I first start working on my project I can click on the text tool and then click in my document to start typing and it will work, I can type as much or as little as i want and then change the text box size to that of the text I typed. After sometime working on that project I click on the text tool and then in the document to start typing but nothing will happen so I have to draw a text box out with the text tool and then that text box is stuck at that size.

I have no idea what is going on or how to fix it. This has been happening for 2 or 3 weeks now.

tromboniator · Accepted Answer

Is it possible that you are pressing the key combination cmd/ctrl+shift+B, which turns off the Bounding Box? From your description it sounds as though Hide Bounding Box and Show Edges are selected. If you go to the View menu when you experience this problem (and if I'm right) you should see Show Bounding Box and Hide Edges. Selecting Show Bounding Box should solve the problem. Bear in mind that I'm guessing here. By all means go through the steps Bill has set out above, if you haven't done so already. Please let us know what happens.

Thanks,

Peter

Bill Silbert · Answer

You did not say what version of Illustrator you are using or on what operating system. If you were not having this problem before but it has suddenly appeared I can think of two scenarios. The first would be that you are using an old version of Illustrator and you have either recently upgraded your operating system on a Mac to High Sierra or you are working on Windows 10 which constantly updates itself. In either case it could be the case of an unsupported version of the program beginning to act funky (or at all) when trying to run on a new version of the OS.

The other scenario is that your Illustrator preferences have corrupted and need to be replaced.

To do so:

For Macintosh Users: With Illustrator closed launch a Finder Window in column view and click on your home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the following two files and delete them: “Adobe Illustrator <Version #> Settings” (earlier versions of Illustrator might just say “Adobe Illustrator”) and “com.adobe.Illustrator.plist”. When Illustrator is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

For Windows Users: You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching Illustrator and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so:

On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator [version number]\ Settings\<Language>. Make sure that Illustrator is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

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