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

[savagequest]

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}

[Ashutosh_Mishra]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your experience. In addition to Monilka's response, please click on the Adobe Illustrator UserVoice post to upvote this issue and follow the workaround provided.

Let us know if it helps.

Regards,

Ashutosh

[Ashutosh_Mishra]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your experience. In addition to Monilka's response, please click on the Adobe Illustrator UserVoice post to upvote this issue and follow the workaround provided.

Let us know if it helps.

Regards,

Ashutosh

[savagequest]

The latest version release of Illustrator v24.2.1 has resolved this issue, the alignment is back to normal as far as I can tell from my end.  I did have to reboot my computer to see the update in Adobe Creative Cloud desktop, after installing the alignment tool is working fine. 

Hope this is helpful!

[kcelsi1999]

Hello. My Illustrator just updated and now my Align Distribute tools are not working. When I try to align a vertical line of items, it aligns them on top of each other instead of distributing them evenly. I've noticed a number of bugs with this latest update in more than one Adobe program. This is the first one I'm posting about. Please let me know if there is a fix for this one. Thank you.

[shawnt85889998]

Same here. Everytime an update comes out.. it's months of issues. C'mon Adobe.

[taylorich]

Yes driving me freaking nuts

[Doug A Roberts]

This is the current status of this bug:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-bugs/suggestions/40681714-align-to-key-o...

You need to manually switch back to Align to Selection or Align to Artboard for now.

[savagequest]

The latest version release of Illustrator v24.2.1 has resolved this issue, the alignment is back to normal as far as I can tell from my end.  I did have to reboot my computer to see the update in Adobe Creative Cloud desktop, after installing the alignment tool is working fine. 

Hope this is helpful!

[melizbuffy1]

I work in fashion, and am trying to align 3 objects with even distribution. The problem is that all of the align options tend to center align. Is that a possible bug with this latest update? Any feedback/assistance will be greatly appreciated, thanks!!

[melizbuffy1]

Hi! So I figured it out and it was really 101, I had to choose align to selection. Thank you for reading my post. Happy Drawing Everyone!!

[savagequest]

There was a bug, it's recently been fixed with the latest update: 

 Illustrator v24.2.1 has resolved this issue, the alignment is back to normal as far as I can tell from my end.  I did have to reboot my computer to see the update in Adobe Creative Cloud desktop, after installing the alignment tool is working fine. 

Hope this is helpful!

[BrickyAutumn]

The key object is now forcing distribute object to no longer distrubute the objects, but rather just align them to the key object.

Is it a new "feature" that key objects stay selected until new keyobject is chosen?

[Charu Rajput]

Hi,

This is the known bug on which Adobe team is working. Here is the similar conversation. You can read also upvote the issue.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/align-to-key-object-not-working-in-illustrator-2020-24-2/...

Issue Link to Upvote

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-bugs/suggestions/40681714-align-to-key-o...

[savagequest]

The latest release of Illustrator v24.2.1 has resolved this issue, the alignment is back to normal as far as I can tell from my end.  I did have to reboot my computer to see the update in Adobe Creative Cloud desktop, after installing the alignment tool is working fine. 

Hope this is helpful!

[AaronDidIt]

I've been using Illustrator for around 25 years now and a few generations ago, Adobe introduced the option to "align to key object" in the alignment panel. For some reason this is often the default for aligning two or more selected items and I usually have to de-select it and select "align to selection" manually. It's another step and disrupts workflow constantly.

I have never found a use for the "key object" function and find it incredibly irritating that Adobe has tried to force this into the way that I work. I would just like to have it go away or at least have it stop being the default when I am trying to align to selections. 

Looked through the boards and haven't found a similar complaint. I can't be the only person who is bothered by this function.

[Monika Gause]

This is version 24.2?

It's a bug and the engineers are already working on it.

[Charlie Y]

I use Key object align fairly often - whenever one particular object is in the correct position, and other objects need to get in line with it. But I know what you're talking about. It's a 'sticky setting." When you select an align mode, it sticks until you change it. And there's the loophole. There have been a few times that I unknowingly set it to Key align by accidentally clicking a second time on one of the objects to be aligned. That's what kicked me into Key select mode. From then on, it sticks with Key mode until you manually change it back. Otherwise, when I fire up AI, the default align setting is Selection. It would indeed be nice if there was a quick/easy way to get into Selection or Artboard mode ... like there is for Key mode. Maybe there's an obscure shortcut somewhere.

[stvpnk]

I'm having the same frustration, and we have roughly similar years of experience Aaron. The specific challenge it represents for me, as I imagine it does for you, is that the Key Object Selection (thick solid blue line) is so visually distracting. It’s like a little gut punch every time you see it (“something’s wrong here”), and only someone that has worked this long and this intimately with the software (I’m in it daily) would perhaps be this sensitive to it. We both know it’s a minor annoyance, but constant minor annoyances accrue into a more significant irritation.

Specifically, I’m constantly tweaking every little detail in my vector illys, to include frequent keyboard nudges, and that bold blue line throws off my precision. The only way around this is to manually turn off Key Object Alignment (Align Palette > Align To drop down) by switching to Align to Selection, which – as you well know – is an incredibly frustrating extra few steps. My normal and near constant technique when precision nudging is to Hide Edges (Command-H), but even this won’t hide that damnable Key Object Selection.

Charlie did bring some light to this for me in identifying that double-clicking on an object will activate it as a Key Object. More and more over the years I’ve found myself using the trackpad on my Macbook for precision manipulation (even subtly rolling your finger on the pad can provide minuscule cursor bumps). And I have my trackpad default setup with Drag Lock (System Preferences > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options > Enable dragging > with drag lock), which of course allows a double-touch-click and then single finger drag. I’m suspecting that this function sometimes triggers an unintended double-click/second selection of objects, thus triggering the Key Object functionality. Perhaps you’re setup similarly, or some other part of your technique is triggering that second selection and turning on your Key Object Selection.

I'm sure that this visual distinction is helpful when you’re using Key Object Selection, as Charlie does. Yet I very much wish there were a way to turn off Key Objects altogether in the preferences, as – like you Aaron – I’ve never had any need to use them myself.

[stvpnk]

And seems sad that I didn't pick up on this before (again thanks for the clues Charlie), but if you simply select the Key Object again (multiple objects presumably are selected), it will deactivate it. Problem solved (I think).

Nevermind, I'm just deselecting the object altogether. And I can’t delete this comment (that should be fixed too).

[Charlie Y]

I just played with it a little more. I appears that if you click yet again on the blue outline, it undoes it, and puts you back into Selection mode.

[Charlie Y]

I may have spoken too soon. It does behave as I described, but not if you have already aligned the objects based on Key Object. At that point, it sticks and the only way out is to manually select Selection mode - clicking again will indeed remove the blue outline, but it will not return to Selection mode. So, yeah ... maybe there's the bug mentioned by Monika_Gause.

[zargap]

So sick of arbitrary changes to how simple things work every major update to this program I use every day. In previous version of illustrator, selecting 2 objects in illustrator, then clicking one of them, would put the palette in "align to key object" mode, then deselecting the objects would revert to "align to selection" or "align to artboard" mode. Now once you get into "align to key object" mode, you have to MANUALLY revert back to either align mode. THIS IS TERRIBLE DESIGN. You're makign me click more! It's bad! Why change it?! Seem like you'd have to go out of your way to make this change which makes this program worse! It's something like this every major "update."

[Monika Gause]

It's a bug and the engineers are already working on it.

[zargap]

Maybe test your $50/month software before releasing it? Just an idea!

[Kurt Gold]

Basically, I agree that a bug like this one should not exist in a final release.

But you are not entitled to blame Monika for the shortcoming. It is not "her" software and she is not responsible for the bug.

This is a User-to-User forum with participants that are discussing topics on a voluntary basis.

[zargap]

"Dislike"

Come on bro, it was royal you. You=Adobe.