Has the Direct-Selection tool become harder to use?

John,

Thank you very much for sharing.

I believe you have found the cause of the (main) original issue from 2019, namely a corrupt document.

And the solution, namely to rescue (whatever can be rescued of) the original artwork by copying and pasting it into a new sound document. In some cases, like your, it can be done in one go with all artwork rescued. In other cases it is necessary to rescue as much as possible part by part and leaving some truly ailing artwork behind which must then be replaced.

I missed the thread back in 2019, but I (mis)read the Example 1 by the original poster as wrong behaviour (I (mis)read the example 1-2-3 as expected behaviour, which the original poster could wish/ask to have changed).

Of course, you realize the irony of the solid nature of the button to select the "direct select tool" is solid, though the tool itself is hollow. Genius, I am sure, but nonetheless, it makes casual discussion of the issue a matter of technicality.

I am using the direct select tool. I am not having a problem selecting a single point. I am having a problem selecting a line. I used to be able to click a line segment between two points and move it. If the line segment was curved, it would modify without moving the points. If the line segment was not curved, it would select the two endpoints and move the entire line segment with its endpoints.

This may have changed a while back, but it is proving to be a real pain on a project where I need the reference points locked in place and just the curve between them adjusted.

Here are the Illustrator behaviors that defy logic somehow:

Example 1: When attempting to modify the curve on a shape

that has not been selected, the cursor indicates that it will

select the entire object rather than what you are pointing at

If I wanted to select the object, I would have used the Object Selection

Tool (the one that is an outline in the tool pallet, but a solid arrow

when using it)

When two endpoints of a segment are selected, the cursor does not indicate that you can modify the curve, and dragging will, in fact, move the curve and the two points as expected. However, it would make more sense to deselect the endpoints if I wanted to move all three (the curve and the two endpoints), it would make sense to have to shift-click the curve. But that would make it harder to move curves, I get it. It would be nice if the line segment were colored differently to indicate when it is selected.

Regardless, shift-clicking the curve should deselect the points and just select the curve if not. Doesn't work. In fact, I don't think there's an easy way other than manually deselecting one point to change the selection from the points to the curve.

Which of course, brings me to the next point that I find strange.

Again, I just want to modify the curve between two points. So I select the object and then go to select the curve, which shows me the curve decorated pointer that would seem to indicate that clicking would select the two endpoints of the curve (notice they are black) Now I realize we are pushing it to be taking for granted the gracious curve decoration on the pointer to begin with and that it is unreasonable to expect the pointer icon to indicate which (if either) point on a curve is selected when attempting to drag a curve. It would just make more sense if the points weren't included in the pointer.

Now when you have one point selected, you might expect one of the following behaviors when attempting to drag the curve: (see below)

1. Dragging the line segment will modify both the selected point and the curve
2. That the point selected would deselect and the curve would become active just like if you clicked a different point
3. The handlebars for the unselected point would maintain their orientation and the curve would modify only the selected points' handlebars.

But no, the answer is that it modifies the curve and the handlebars between the two points without moving the selected point. It is very strange behavior that the selected point doesn't move when dragging a curve attached to it.

Regardless of all of this, my problem remains, Neither I nor any of my students are easily able to select and modify a curve any longer. I tried Illustrator CS5 and the behavior was somehow different. And it was a lot faster than CC for simple curve manipulation. Just wondering if other people had the same issue with difficulty manipulating curves (not selecting points).