Drawing a single rectangle creates a blend of rectangles, how can i stop it?

[rek1]

Hi, a puzzling feature, just started using illustrator after many years and selecting the rectangle tool now seems to have locked it in a kind of blend. Instead of one rectangle it follows the cursor and draws a blend of rectangles starting from where I start to where I unclick.

Double clicking on the artboard allows me to specify just one rectangle or other shape. 

This oddity is the same in the circle and other shape tools and relaunching the program is not helping.

any clues please?

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

There is either your tilde key stuck (in other countries than the US it could be a different key) or something is interfering.

Could be something from this list:

• WebRoot
• Apple Terminal
• Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• »Enable Full Keyboard« in Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard on Mac OS
• Apple Mail, Outlook
• Spacebar is used as a shortcut by the system
• Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari
• Wacom Desktop Center, Wacom settings
• Windows Touch Pad problem
• LastPass, Bitwarden (password managers)
• The VPN

[rek1]

Thank you Monika!

Even though before posting I'd made sure that no keys were being pressed, by giving them all a brush and then pressing the tilde key a few times it released. Many thanks for that and for the extremely prompt reply.

richard

[Monika Gause]

You're welcome. I'm glad you could solve it!