Preferences > Keyboard Increment in 29.7

[jmyjazz]

For years (and years), I’ve been hitting Command+K to bring up Preferences and immediately change the keyboard increment. The input box for keyboard increment used to be auto-selected, allowing me to type a new value without any extra clicks.

In the just-installed version 29.7, Command+K still opens Preferences, but now it auto-selects the search input instead. Is there any way to restore the old behaviour?

Personally, I use search only occasionally, whereas I change the keyboard increment multiple times a day. This change feels like a step backwards in terms of productivity.

[Todd29453905ox4r]

I agree 100% - I change the increments CONSTANTLY for work in printing, EASILY hundreds of times per day. This change to "Ctr+K > enter increment >  ENTER" has absolutely ruined my workflow.

Adobe, PLEASE fix this asap. I've never posted on a community forum like this before, this is a very simple but crucial change.

Thanks you!!

[Samantha25660996rj40]

PLEASE FIX THIS! I was looking everywhere for someone to comment this. I have been using this feature for 10+ years, I am changing increments hundreds of times a day. The change is really jarring. Would appreciate a quick fix to this.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi everyone, 

I wanted to share an update from the product team. They've confirmed that the change you noticed in 29.7 where the search field is auto-selected instead of the keyboard increment field was not intentional and has been fixed in the upcoming 29.8 release. Once you update(when its available), Command+K / Ctrl+K will again focus directly on the keyboard increment field as before, so you can adjust it without extra clicks.

Please let me know once you've tried the new version and if everything works as expected.

Abhishek

[frankyfrancesca]

Wow Abhishek, that is really good news!
Thank you for this update, it makes my day!
Kind regards,
Franky

[richardesignerUK]

I've also posted about this separeately and I'm glad its going to be fixed in the next update!

[mackimi]

Und wann kommt das update? Es ist ja nicht der einzige Fehler. Ich stelle zum Beispiel immer von Punkt auf mm um und bei jedem neustart ist das wieder auf Punkt umgestellt.

[Monika Gause]

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@mackimi  schrieb:

Und wann kommt das update? Es ist ja nicht der einzige Fehler. Ich stelle zum Beispiel immer von Punkt auf mm um und bei jedem neustart ist das wieder auf Punkt umgestellt.

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Was ist wieder umgestellt?

Die Einheit in der Dialogbox entspricht der Einheit des aktuellen Dokuments. Die Einheit ist eine Eigenschaft des Dokuments. 

Oder ist es umgestellt, wenn kein Dokument offen ist? 

[mackimi]

Ich muss mich korrigieren. Gestern habe ich an vielen alten und neuen Dokumenten gearbeitet (alle wie immer erstellt) und dabei wurde Illustrator unerwartet beendet. Beim erneuten öffnen und weiterarbeiten habe ich dann gesehen das die Einheiten in den Voreinstellungen wieder alle auf Punkt standen. Wahrscheinlich hat der Absturz dies verursacht. 

[mackimi]

Ich habe herausgefunden warum während dem Arbeiten die Voreinstellungen wieder auf den Standart zurück gesetzt werden. Automatisch wie immer benutzte ich com K um den Tastaturschritt auf 0.5 mm zu stellen und bestätigte dies mit der Taste Zeilenschalter ohne hinzuschauen da ich diesen Befehl hundert mal am Tag und über Jahre benutze. Dann habe ich bemerkt das dies ja nun nicht mehr geht und bin in die Voreinstellungen zurück und siehe da alles war auf Standart gesetzt und meine Einstellungen waren weg. 

[AndrewC1264]

Abhishek - while you're at it - fix the ridiculous process that that tab key highlights buttons in dialogue boxes - absolutely not necessary at all because this does absolutely nothing, does not make the buttons active except may the OK button. So why have this at all? It should only tab between input boxes - that is all - nothing else.

This is probably a leftover from when Adobe ported their apps from Windoze to Mac and left all kinds of extraneous code from Windoze such as highlighting buttons which was never a problem pre-2007, pre-Intel based Macs.

The Mac apps were solid, almost every version of every Adobe app since 2007 has had regular ongoing issues which we have to find workarounds until Adobe addresses them months/years later. That's 18 years of putting up with less-than-professional applications.

Hate to say I am old enough to know Adobe Illustrator '88 but when you have software the starts out as the most amazing piece of technology there is - drawing in PostScript!!! - and then watch it consistently degrade over the years due to incompetent programmers adding stuff that absolutely is not necessary, it's disappointing.

If AI starts to creep into Illustrator like it has in Acrobat then it may be time to just stop upgrading at all ever. I have a 2013 iMac I keep for just scanning because all of that software works, properly. My 2023 MacBook Pro is my workhorse but of course suffers from Adobe "updates" like these.

Now over to the InDesign forum to post yet another issue. Sigh.

[spudlington]

I can see why it's handy to have a search function in the preferences - but not as the default input when you go there. For years the default has been 'keyboard increment' and it's a really handy thing to be able to go straight there and change the increment… almost through muscle memory. Now you go to prefences, start typing and get nothing as it's searching. Is there a way to chnage this back to how it was? Thanks

[Todd225378934n1g]

  Preferences menu (ctrl K) has historically opened to the general tab with the top option (keyboard increment) highlighted.  This has always made switching your keyboard increments super fast and easy.  I switch my keyboard increments constantly during the various stages of design, layout and proofing process.  Starting with todays update the Crtl K preferences menu now opens with the "search preferences" field highlighted instead of keyboard increments being the default active field.  This is really a huge deal for me.  Every single time that I change my keyboard increments I now have to click on the field to highlight it instead of it being active by default.  Little changes like this are extremely frustrating for long time users such as myself.  Is there anyway to change this back?  Can I turn of the "search preferences" field so the "keyboard increments" field will remain the default active field when I push Ctrl K?  This may not seem to be a big deal to most but it is extremely frusrating for me. 

[Ton Frederiks]

You may want to vote here:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/50255313-keyboa...

[Todd225378934n1g]

Thank you Ton.  Very helpful.

[jmyjazz · Accepted solution]

As noted in @Abhishek Rao post below this has been fixed in the upcoming 29.8 release.

[Greg36555345hoga]

For years hitting Cntl-K opened Preferences with the Keyboard Increment input field selected are ready for input. I used the search feature in the window and now when I Cntl-K, The left pane General tab is hilighted and the Keyboard Increment input field does not have default focus. Instead, the focus is in the Search bar.

This is a HUGE workflow killer for me. I use this dozens of times per session and have been doing so as a professional designer for decades. This one really hurts.

I've tried restting Prefs, uninstalling and reinstalling just to fix this. I've also done quite a few random actions, nothing fixes it.

How to return to this previous workflow? Cntl-K > [number input] > Return

As of now It's: Cntl-K, Alt-K, [number input] > Return > Return (yes, 2 x Returns)

[Kurt Gold]

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/preferences-gt-keyboard-increment-in-29-7/td-...

[Greg36555345hoga]

Well, bless you, sir. Thank you for that and the quick reply. 

Do y9ou happen to knowq when the new rev will drop?

[Kurt Gold]

Unfortunately, I do not know the release date of Illustrator 29.8.

You will have to wait a bit.

[richardesignerUK]

Why has this search box appeared/been added in the 'Settings' window in Illustrator? I tweak my 'Keyboard Increments' alot whilst using ilustrator. Usually I hit 'Command K'. Input say 1.0 or 0.1 or 0.01 hit return and away I go. Now when I hit Command K I enter this stupid search field box and my once quick shortcut has now been thoroughly compromnised. Thanks Adobe....not. Is there anyway I can get rid of this stupid search 'Select Preference' box in the 'Settings' window?

[richardesignerUK]

See... its not in the 2024 version. See attached screenshot. This 'Select Pref' box only apperas in the latest 2025 version of Illustrator. Annoying!

[richardesignerUK]

Actually after hitting 'Command K'. If I hit the 'Tab' key 4 times the increments box becomes active and I can enter 0.1, 1, 0.001 etc. I can see thats going to wear out my 'Tab' key pretty quickly having to do that everytime. :-)))

[Ton Frederiks]

Looks like it is going to be fixed:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/preferences-gt-keyboard-increment-in-29-7/td-...

[richardesignerUK]

Thanks Ton. It does indeed look like they'll fix that problem in the next release! That is good news! 

[erol_sami̇_3985]

After last upadate appeared the search preferences bar in preferences screen. How can I turn it off