Issues with Zoom tool spacebar shortcut in Adobe Illustrator 2023

[Alastair L]

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!)

 

[Alastair L]

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

[Bobby Henderson]

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.

[Alastair L]

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.

[Monika Gause]

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?

[Alastair L]

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.   

[Alastair L]

So what is running on your computer?

By @Monika Gause

Quite a lot but half what I used to run.

[Monika Gause]

So what is running on your computer?

By @Monika Gause

Quite a lot but half what I used to run.

By @Alastair L

I wasn't joking. My answer is based on the experience with helping people on the forums. And your case is typical for other apps interfering. Chrome, email software, antivirus, banking apps, screensharing - those apps have been interfering with modifier keys for years. There are dozens of threads where people could solve these issues by either changing the settings of said applications or by stopping using them at all.

Why does that appear now and hasn't happened during recent years? One of the big unknowns of computing.

So just since this seems to be imporant to you: I too have been using Macs since the 80s and they never cease to surprise me with their behaviour.

[Bobby Henderson]

I'll add Windows Ink into the list of offending applications that screw up modifier keys or even just basic functions of a mouse or pen/stylus. I have a Wacom graphics tablet attached to my personal notebook computer and use the Wacom pen for all the mouse-like functions. But I have to leave Windows Ink disabled in the Wacom tablet properties due to Windows Ink blatantly interfereing with all sorts of basic things. Disabling Windows Ink comes at the cost of cancelling out the Wacom pen's pressure sensitive functions. I've tried all kinds of hacks to get pressure sensitivity to work without Windows Ink being enabled but none have been successful. If Windows Ink is enabled in the Wacom tablet properties a very annoying pop up appears whenever clicking into a text entry field. It wants me to hand-write the text into that pop up rather than use the computer's physical keyboard, which can write text about 984,894,292 times faster. My computer is not a phone. The Windows OS provides no simple/clear way how to disable that very very stupid default behavior. The iPad Pro also gives users an option to hand-write text into text entry fields, but that is disabled by default and it is an option that is very easy/simple to turn on/off. Another aggravating thing Windows Ink does to the Wacom Pen: it disables animated zoom. If you press the pen tip down and drag (while pressing Ctrl+Spacebar) some stupid circular bullseye icon appears for some sort of Windows Ink function. If I try enabling Windows Ink briefly just to do a few pressure sensitive related edits to artwork the experience quickly becomes very aggravating. Windows Ink just sucks. I guess Windows Ink might be important for Microsoft Surface products (how it is important I do not know); it's like a computer virus for any other PCs using graphics tablets.

I've complained to Wacom about this to no avail. They need to create a tablet driver that doesn't need any Windows Ink related code for all the normal pen functions to work. At this point my only choices for getting pressure sensitivity functions out of a pen is either using an iPad Pro (I have one of those) or ditching the Windows platform and going Mac. Windows Ink really really sucks!

[Alastair L]

thanks everyone for the replies.

it's not effecting me ATM with the AI Beta (27.3.407).

maybe it is/was some other app interfering… these days I'm an infrewuent user of the CC suite so I'm not sure when the problem disapperared. If it comes back I'll definately do the safe mode testing that Anshui recomeended (and Apple too would probably suggest).

I guess I react so strongly these days because from my stndpoint Adobe software Qualtiy Assurance has been slowly deterioring over the last decade or more. And their obvious attitude problems towards Apple market has resulted in a code base that is ancient and cumbling. With every Apple API regression or macOS update  something else in CC apps breaks and Adobe is often not fixing it until well past GM release, we are the poor guinie pigs in their lab boxes.  (Apple aren't always transperent and far from perfect but they do make staff availbe to developers to sort these things).

[Alastair L]

I have owned so many Wacom tablets over the years, Now I buy XP-Pen because sick of giving Wacom money for them to no longer support a table in their driver or the driver is tihs or this deluxe pen wont work with that new/older tablet…

[Anshul_Saini]

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

[Alastair L]

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

[SMMArt05]

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.

[Bobby Henderson]

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.