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A
Alastair L
Inspiring
December 23, 2022
Question

Issues with Zoom tool spacebar shortcut in Adobe Illustrator 2023

  • December 23, 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 3284 views

It doesn't work any more. 😞 I need to use it every minute I'm in AI!

I've restarted AI several times and the spacebar shortcut for zooming when in the selection tools or many other tools doesn't work anymore.

weirdly I had an issue yesterday with Photoshop where even when I had clicked on the Zoom tool in the tool  and it appeared to be active, it wasn't active and the last tool i had selected was still the active tool and cursor was of the previous tool too. I tried restarting PS several times and it didn't remedy the problem. After I restarted my mac the problem was gone (for now!)

 

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5 replies

S
SMMArt05
Participant
October 24, 2023

Yeah! I have the same problem even I'm having Windows 10, but still pressing Ctrl+Spacebar just shows the Legacy Zoom option, i.e. you'd make a rectangle to get that area fit to screen, while animated zoom isn't available here.

B
Community Expert
Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 24, 2023

Was the animated zoom feature working on your computer previously? If you have a graphics board/chip that is compatible with Illustrator's GPU-accelerated features, as as animated zoom, check to see if a driver update is available for it.

Anshul_Saini
Community Manager
Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
Community Manager
December 29, 2022

Hi @Alastair L,

 

Thanks for reaching out. I agree with Monika; this generally happens when third-party apps interfere with keyboard shortcuts, and in some cases, it happens due to corrupt Ai preferences Or macOS System Settings.

 

The best way to check is to boot in safe mode and launch Illsutartor only to check whether the shortcuts are working. If yes, then try opening apps one by one and see which app or process is interrupting.

 

Also, please check in Mac setting if 'Enable Full Keyboard Access' is disabled or not. If not, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard > Untick 'Enable Full Keyboard Access.'

 

I hope this helps!

 

Thanks,

Anshul Saini

    A
    Alastair LAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 19, 2023

    thanks, I'll do that next time I'm affected. My Full Keyboard Access setting is correct already.

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 23, 2022

      A lot of third party apps intewrfere with shortcuts and modifier keys. The browser Chrome is the most prominent example, but there are many more.

       

      So what is running on your computer?

        A
        Alastair LAuthor
        Inspiring
        December 23, 2022

        I did run Chrome the other day. I almost never use it but the FIFA WC on my local broadcaster who runs ads non-stop wouldn't stream in Safari or Firefox because it detected ad blockers (even though I'd turned everything I addes as plugins off). Chrome worked so i used it.

        I've been using macs since the 80s and I've never ever had another app or 3rd party plugin or random shareware (back in the day) interfer with Adobe shortcuts. I wonder how the fruit I'm supposed to get this fixed.

        This happened when I updated Photoshop and Illustrator.

        I've run the betas and the pre-release versions and I've also regressed AI to the previous version where I didn't ahve this problem.

        To be honest I'm getting very sick of Adobe QA deteriorating since they went subscription model. THey take us users for granted and the level of fit and finish on every new release is always less than deirable in my experience,

        The latest upgrade or downgrade of AI has lost all my preferenes and keyboard shortcuts, I have dozens of custom shortcuts. Now I'll ahve to go hunting around in~/Library to find the old files. I should't have to do that but so often i do.   

        B
        Community Expert
        Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 23, 2022

        What operating system are you using? I'm running Illustrator 27.1.1 on Windows (Win 10 Pro on my personal notebook and Win 11 Pro on my work desktop). The spacebar brings up the hand tool on my system. Pressing Ctrl+Spacebar brings up the zoom in tool. Ctrl+Alt+Spacebar brings up the zoom out tool. Ctrl+Spacebar is all you need for animated zooming in and out.

          A
          Alastair LAuthor
          Inspiring
          December 23, 2022

          Thanks, I'm on macOS 13.0.1. Apple made me upgrade, their help desk always insist on one upgrading and are so asured it will fix the problem of the day but more than 50% of the time it doesn't fix anything and creates new problems. Why I usually prefer to stay one OS version behind to give Adobe et al time to catch up.

          I know the shortcuts, been using Adobe since the first macs came out in 1980s :-).

          Now i've noticed it's not working for PS, ID and Acrobat. My spacebar key works just fine, I'm typing with it now. I'm wondering if macOS could be blocking the shortcut, seeing as it's across all four apps (probably other Adobe I haven't checked yet).

          Well I just checked Vuo which uses spacebar for Hand tool (pan) and it worls fine in Vuo.

          So this is an Acobe + macOS thing for sure.


            A
            Alastair LAuthor
            Inspiring
            December 23, 2022

            Oh the Hand (pan) tool doesn't work either. How does Adobe mange to get worse on QA every single version they release something?

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