Editing Text in Illustrator

Hello - I received a product label from a designer for my company, but all of the text in the file looks like it has been converted to shape -- I can only access the words as individual shapes with points around them

Marlon has it right; based on your description, the text has been converted to outlines. There is no way to revert that to live, edtable text. You'll have to consult the designer, who should still have a copy with live type.

Hi. To be able to edit the text, ask the designer for the file with the live text (without converting to outlines).

Check this tutorial: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/how-to/text-basics.html

You don’t sound like an Illustrator artist, which suggests to me that editing this artwork file lies outside your job description and/or above your pay grade. Without knowing what kind of artwork it is or the purpose for which it’s created, here is some general advice. First, a question:

1. Is this a small business which you own, and you’ve commissioned an artist to create an artwork for you?

2. Are you just an employee in someone else’s company, with managers above you?

If it’s #1: talk to your artist. Because it sounds like either you’ve not briefed them sufficiently well on your requirements (e.g. you need the artwork in MS Word format with X/Y/Z sections text editable by you) or, if you did, that they’ve not followed your requirements correctly (they delivered a finished print-ready artwork, and outlined the text to avoid any “missing font” problems when printed). A good artist understands that customers are not experts in design and print (that’s why you’re hiring them!), and will ask all the right questions to pin down requirements during the briefing process; and if a few issues still slip through then best to identify and correct as quickly as possible.

Also, a contract for an artwork will typically allow for several rounds of revisions, where the artist sends you a draft artwork to review and request any alterations; then they make those changes and send a new draft; and rinse and repeat until you’re happy with the final artwork (or need to pay for additional revisions). So while the artist may send you a non-editable copy to preview, they will still have the original editable files to work on themselves.

If it’s #2: punt the problem up to your manager. That’s what good managers are there for: handling problems that are outside your job description and above your pay grade. Say you do not have the necessary training to edit the artwork file yourself, and ask if they want you to forward the list of revisions back to the designer to action.

Again, it may be that the designer was supposed to supply the artwork in a format editable by non-artworkers, e.g. a Word template. Or perhaps your manager assigned that work to you not appreciating that it requires skills which you do not have. We have no way of knowing and it sounds like neither do you, so again punt it up to someone whose responsibility it is to know for them to sort out.

(And if you have a bad manager? Absolutely CYA! Put everything in writing so that if they force you to make changes despite not knowing how, you’ve a hard paper trail to pin the responsibility for the resultant mess firmly onto them, not on you. And polish your CV so you can go find a job that’s not run by turnips.)

You will probably need to find out what font was used and have it on your computer to add to/change text.