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Marina Boese
New Participant
June 1, 2018
Answered

Can't Resize in Illustrator even though Bounding Box is visible?

  • June 1, 2018
  • 20 replies
  • 475591 views

Hello! Hoping someone can help as this is frustrating and I can't for the life of me get any answer from anywhere that does not involve the bounding box.

I am unable to resize objects and text in illustrator despite the anchor points being visible and the bounding box being turned on. This normally happens by accidentally hitting an unknown hotkey (Not sure which one...). My mouse has a different icon on it when this happens that I do not recognize (photo below).

Program version: 2018 CC Illustrator (Newest Update as of May 31, 2018)

Please help... uninstalling does not work and this is really slowing down my workflow.

    Correct answer beauhenneha

    As mentioned before, I've done that already, but it doesn't matter now, I figured it out. So for anyone who finds themselves in this situation where trying View>"Show bounding box" does not resolve your issue, here's what I did. Try selecting the three dots in the bottom right corner of the transform panel and see if Scale Corners and Strokes and Effects are checked. If it is not, checked them and then try. This worked for me, nothing else in this forum worked and I did not find this answer anywhere when I googled. I only found the same solution of going to View > Show bounding box as the solution but this did not work for me. Thank you everyone who has posted because I did try all of your solutions. 


    FOr anybody still having trouble, i did all of these solutions and nothing worked. I made a rectangle then with the regular selection tool i pressed control and dragged the corners to make it a cureved ractangle. THEN when i pressed show bounding box, it actually popped up, it would not work for a regular rectangle. after that it worked for whatever shape i made

    20 replies

    Show previous replies
    P
    Paul5CFE
    New Participant
    October 16, 2020

    problem solved. Thank you

    F
    fernandop51228657
    New Participant
    October 12, 2020

    I was having a similar issue, regardless of how big the artboard was, Illustrator refused to resize the selected objects. Eventually, I realised that guides were unlocked so it was selecting the guides as well as the object making the selection too large. I cleared guides and that solved the problem for me.

    K
    KateM86
    New Participant
    July 1, 2020

    I'm having a similar issue. I checked in View>Show Bounding Box and it is selected. Any ideas?

    L
    lindsey.haller
    New Participant
    July 7, 2020

    Currently haveing the same issue. I have tried the "Show bounding box" option as well and nothing is working. I can scale a single shape I have drawn, but once I group it, or try to scale group text, it won't let me. 

      B
      BobBending
      New Participant
      July 8, 2020

      If you're having problems adjusting the width/size of a block of text and it's distorting the text when you resize the container, the block needs to be converted to a 'Type Area'. Select the block of text with bounding box displayed then go to the 'Type' menu in the top bar, then down to 'Convert to type area'.

      Now when you resize the text block, the text will re-flow.

        F
        focused_adventurer5ED3
        New Participant
        June 2, 2020

        Great sir it worked perfectly and now im able to work .

        A BIG THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION YOU'RE THE LEGENDS GUYS

        진
        진원곽97050541
        New Participant
        December 15, 2019

        saved my life! 

        C
        clarissaj57664702
        New Participant
        November 5, 2019

        Hi, this did not work for me. Bounding Box is showing and hitting E did nothing for me. Please help, I'm going crazy. My cursor looks like the one pictured above. 

         

         

         

        Monika Gause
        Monika Gause
        Community Expert
        November 5, 2019

        That's not the bounding box. You need to do View > Show bounding box.

          C
          cyfarian
          New Participant
          August 24, 2020

          As mentioned before, I've done that already, but it doesn't matter now, I figured it out. So for anyone who finds themselves in this situation where trying View>"Show bounding box" does not resolve your issue, here's what I did. Try selecting the three dots in the bottom right corner of the transform panel and see if Scale Corners and Strokes and Effects are checked. If it is not, checked them and then try. This worked for me, nothing else in this forum worked and I did not find this answer anywhere when I googled. I only found the same solution of going to View > Show bounding box as the solution but this did not work for me. Thank you everyone who has posted because I did try all of your solutions. 


          I checked the bounding box AND your suggestion and it is still happening. It is driving me BONKERS.

            N
            Normanshire11
            New Participant
            February 16, 2019

            Thank you. This has been driving me nuts! I uploaded the new CC2019 and there are so many glitches of this nature that shouldn't be there. These things should be part of the automatic set up. For instance, being able to see the transformation points on a shape so you can simply resize it. Adobe, what's going on?

            Bader Ali
            Bader Ali
            New Participant
            October 16, 2019
            Go to: Object/Shape/Convert To Shape
              I
              Iman.Ahmed.educhamber
              Participating Frequently
              June 2, 2018

              Yes I agree with "Ton" and "Bill"
              Turn on the bounding box and everything will go smooth.

              If you still have a problem, take a snapshot from the whole screen, with your object selected and your layers visible, and then share it please.

              Thank  you

                S
                sj1122
                Known Participant
                October 14, 2021

                Help. I can't scale type in a box without reflowing the type. This is making me CRAZY I have logos I need to do today. I have checked my bounding box, looked at the transform tool. IT WILL work with the tranform tool, but not with the selection tool. SLOGGING here! Latest versions of everything. Restarted twice. Copied and pasted type into a new box. Nothing is helping. Stupid, but if items are grouped they all rescale. I really need to tweak type sizes fast. Never had this problem before. please help. I've got to be missing something. This was working just fine on Tuesday.

                Bill Silbert
                Bill Silbert
                Community Expert
                June 1, 2018

                The icon you're seeing is that of the Free Transform Tool and the anchor points appear as if the Bounding Box is not activated. Turn on the Bounding Box under the View Menu and select the object with the regular selection tool (black arrow). You should then be able to scale and rotate the object using this selection tool.

                  Ton Frederiks
                  Ton Frederiks
                  Community Expert
                  June 1, 2018

                  The Selection tool has the same icon as the Free transform tool.

                  But I agree, turn on the Bounding Box: Shift Cmb B (or Shift Ctrl B on Win).

                    Bill Silbert
                    Bill Silbert
                    Community Expert
                    June 1, 2018

                    The Selection tool has the same icon as the Free transform tool.

                    OMG, you're right, Ton! Has that always been the case? I've always associated that icon with the Free Transform and somehow hadn't noticed that the two tools had the same icon. Sometimes you can look at something over and over but just not see what's really there.

                      Monika Gause
                      Monika Gause
                      Community Expert
                      June 1, 2018

                      It would help if you could show a screenshot that contains all your object. The bounding box is visible? View > Show Bounding box (turns into Hide Bounding box, as soon as it is turned on)

                      If you can't get it to work, you can take the free transform tool.

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