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mwjr
Known Participant
December 11, 2018
Answered

Is there a way to set 'Align to Key Object' as the default?

  • December 11, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 11462 views

I've searched through the preferences, but I don't see it in there. Might it be somewhere else, or is this not an option?

    Correct answer Srishti Bali

    Hi all,

     

    We have tried to fix this in our recent release for Illustrator 2020 (v 24.3) which contains some stability fixes. If you are not already on v24.3, then we recommend you to update to latest version and share your observations with us. 

     

    Regards!

    3 replies

    M
    mikey_likes_it
    Known Participant
    June 19, 2020

    HELP! How do I turn this feature OFF, now that it looks like this "Align to Key Object" is the default setting with the latest release of Illustrator? I don't want the Key Object to be automatically selected. I thought I found a workaround when I selected all the objects in the file and then selected "Align to Selection" in the Align Window. However, I found out that if you make a change to that object, say a text object (by selecting the text or by actually changing the style of the text), that Illustrator automatically reverts back to a default setting of "Align to Key Object." I need to be able to set this at the program level for all files that I edit, not just individual files.

      P
      Pseudogeologist
      Participant
      June 21, 2020

      This is exactly the same thing i've been facing since i updated Ai. Today (22nd June)! It is annoying (personal opinion) since it is interfering with my usual workflow!

        B
        BrickyAutumn
        Participant
        June 23, 2020

        DANG! THIS IS MY PROBLEM TOO! HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP

          B
          Community Expert
          Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          December 11, 2018

          I wish it didn't take extra clicks to align one object to another, with one object staying locked in place as the key object. In Illustrator you have to click one object, shift-click the other object and then (while both are selected) click the object you want to stay locked in place. The extra click is really unnecessary. The extra click can also be a pain when you're working on a Wacom tablet. If you're not careful the last extra click can move things around. If you don't press hard enough the whole selection is lost and you get to start over again. Very annoying.

          By comparison, CorelDRAW accomplishes the goal with no more than two clicks for the selection. Which ever object was last to be shift-clicked into the selection is automatically held as the key object and will stay locked in place. No extra clicks required. CorelDRAW will also do this in regard to anchor point alignment too. Anchor point alignment is far more straight-forward to do in CorelDRAW than it is in Illustrator. Flexi is a popular sign design application; it reverses the key object clicking order. The first object shift clicked into a selection stays locked in place for alignment functions.

            John Mensinger
            Community Expert
            John MensingerCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            December 11, 2018

            For what it's worth, depending on the desired result you may not need to extra-click a key object when you are performing non-center alignments. If you are aligning objects left, right, top, or bottom, they will always align to the farthest object in that direction. In the absence of an extra-clicked key object:

            • Align left uses the left-most object as key
            • Align right uses the right-most object as key
            • Align top uses the highest object as key
            • Align bottom uses the lowest object as key
            B
            Community Expert
            Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            December 11, 2018

            Very often when aligning objects the user is center-aligning objects of different sizes. If you marquee select a couple objects and click a center-align function and don't make an extra click to define a key object both objects will be re-positioned. In fairness, the same thing will happen in CorelDRAW too. But you can shift-click two objects and choose any alignment command and the last object shift clicked will stay in place.

            Another alignment scenario is aligning 3 or more objects to one axis and the desired key object is not the farthest left, right, top, etc. With a straight-forward shift-click behavior one should be able to marquee select the entire group and then just use shift-click to toggle off/on the last object to make it the key reference object for aligning. The bad thing about Illustrator's current setup is you have to let go of the shift key and then click again. It's possible to move objects when making that click. Or if the key object doesn't have a fill or has an open path it's possible to miss clicking the object. Then the whole group of objects is de-selected. You have to start over with that alignment task. It would just be easier to hold down the shift key to click objects in and out of the selection, with the last object selected being automatically locked as the key object for aligning.

            Monika Gause
            Community Expert
            Monika GauseCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            December 11, 2018

            You need to tell Illustrator the key object anyway.

            Align to key object will be set automatically when you point at it

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