Polygon side widget

[TechwriterTed]

According to the tutorials, I should be able to change the number of sides on a polygon by dragging the "side widget".

I can't find this widget.

I have been unable to hover or click anywhere around the polygon and find a side widget. Anything I do just resizes the hexagon.

What am I missing.

(Illustrator version 2015.1.1)

[SJRiegel · Accepted solution]

It's a tiny diamond on the bounding box of the polygon. When you hover over it you should see +/– . Press on the mouse and drag to increase or decrease number of sides. (You may see a tooltip counting the sides)

[Kurt Gold]

Is that polygon a live shape? You can check that by selecting it and then open the Transform palette. If you don't see a section called Polygon Attributes (or something similar), it would not be a live shape. Therefore no widget.

You can, however, convert a "plain" polygon into a live polygon (see Object menu). Then the widget should be there.

[TechwriterTed]

I expect that this is not a "live" polygon, but I am not seeing how to change it from the Object menu.

[Kurt Gold]

Doesn't Illustrator CC 2015 have an Object > Shape > Convert to Shape command?

[TechwriterTed]

My menu options are...

Object > Shape > Convert to Rectangle

and

Object > Shape > Expand Rectangle

I tried Convert to Rectangle. I got a brief popup message that said "Object not converted".

[Kurt Gold]

Ok, then I conclude that the more general Convert to Shape command was introduced in the most recent versions of Illustrator.

[SJRiegel]

It's available in 215.3.1

[Om Nath Jha]

Hi Ted,

You can simply choose the Polygon tool, drag your mouse to create a polygon and use the up and down arrows on your keyboard at the same time to increase or decrease the number of sides as well.

Regards,

Om

[TechwriterTed]

This is the only solution that's working for me.

[Ton Frederiks]

[mvloviekins]

Just clicking with the polygon tool selected on your work space will provide a pop-up for polygon radius and sides.

I also could not find the convenient sliding widget.

[Ton Frederiks]

You need to have the Show Bounding Box turned on and use the Selection Tool (black arrow).