Magnifier tool shortcut (alt to change) not working

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
December 5, 2016
2 replies
4602 views

Is anyone else finding, in Ai 2017, that their magnifier tool doesn't work frequently? On Windows 10, I hold the alt key down to zoom out, but I'm finding that instead of the "-" in the magnifier, I'm getting the hand tool, which should happen when I hold the shift key. If I click off of the magnifier and then back on, it will start working again. This seems like a bug, but since Adobe doesn't have a great track record of fixing little things like this, I thought I would check with the forum before reporting it. This happens every few minutes, so it is very inconvenient. Thanks for any input!

GS

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer SomeScreenNameOrOther

I realise that this is an old post, but I found that the unticking the Zoom with Scroll Wheel option under Preferences > General seemed to do the trick for me, though I can't guarantee that it'll work for everything.

SomeScreenNameOrOtherCorrect answer

New Participant

I realise that this is an old post, but I found that the unticking the Zoom with Scroll Wheel option under Preferences > General seemed to do the trick for me, though I can't guarantee that it'll work for everything.

G

gila23284373j1jk

New Participant

2022 update. This sudenly started happening to me too, where the magnifiying glass becomes the hand when you press alt, instead of being the minus-glass (zoom out) as it should be. BUT, in experimenting, it's only happening if TEXT is involved. So, if I zoom in on text with the magnifying glass, then mess around with the text some, and then try and zoom out, I get the hand instead of the minus-glass. BUT if I change my tool and click anywhere in the artboard, then switch back to the magnifying glass, there is the correct alt: the zoom-out minus glass. So this is a glitch, seemingly triggered by some interaction of zoom and text.

kellyv11057691

New Participant

Brilliant. Works for me and will save so much time. I had been closing our of Ilustrator for the past year to solve this issue.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

This kind of irritations with modifier keys tends to happen as some incompatibilities with certain browser add-ons and some other apps. Can you please and shut down all other apps, launch only Illustrator and then check your alt key?

Also: in case you haven't restarted the computer for more than a day: do that as well.

Graphic SquirrelAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for the reply, Monika. The problem is that I use 3 of my programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign) at the same time, going back and forth between the three. I do not have any add-ons on Illustrator. So would it help if, when this happens again, I closed the other adobe programs? Or are there others you are referring to?

Thanks for your help!

Graphic SquirrelAuthor

Inspiring

Other Adobe apps should not be an issue.

What else is open? Browser? E-Mail? Banking software? Which antivirus? Something else? Those small apps are known to cause issues.

I do appreciate your advice, but I cannot close everything just to work in Illustrator. The other things I have open, like Firefox or Excel, must remain open when I work. It has never happened before, so it must be the 2017 version that is misbehaving. Because it only happens occasionally, I will try closing things when it happens to see if that solves the problem. However, I can't change my entire way of working just because there is a problem with ai. That is what needs to be fixed.

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