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geoffball
geoffball
Inspiring
December 8, 2016
Question

Switch selection tool not working with the pen tool in Illustrator CC 2017 Mac

  • December 8, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 1851 views

I am using Illustrator CC 2017 on a Mac. With every drawing tool (curvature tool, shapes, pencil, text tool, blob brush, etc.) I can use Cmd-Opt-Tab to switch between my black and white arrows. The exception is the pen tool. When the pen tool is active—whether or not I am working on a path outline—holding Cmd only gets me the white arrow (regardless of what my last used arrow happened to be). Adding Opt-Tab (so, Cmd-Opt-Tab) does nothing. I've watched videos by Deke McClelland wherein he switches from black to white arrow (or vice versa) while using the pen tool, but he uses Windows which has a different key combination (Ctrl-~).

I've investigated possible keyboard shortcut conflicts, but that should mean that the shortcut wouldn't work with the other tools. Focus is retained in the app when I press these keys. I do not have anything like BetterTouchTool open nor installed.

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    2 replies

    Om Nath Jha
    Om Nath Jha
    Legend
    May 18, 2017

    Hi all,

    Please fill in the feature request form: Feature Request/Bug Report Form as suggested by Monika. I'll also report this to the concerned team to take a look and will update as soon as I get a reply.

    Regards,

    Om

      Mike_Gondek10189183
      Community Expert
      Mike_Gondek10189183Community Expert
      Community Expert
      December 8, 2016

      Wanted to let you know I am experiencing the exact same as you described with Mac 10.10.5 and these versions

      • 2015.3
      • 2017

      CS6 with the pen tool gives me

      • Command - hollow tool
      • Command Option - direct group select
      • Command Option Tab - double arrow copy
      • Command Option Tab - direct group select

      Would make sense that all tools would act as with the text tool does in CC2017.

      Adobe unfortunatley has a growing number of inconstancies in their software suite. Sorry that I can offer no better assistance on this one.

      J
      jambojam
      Known Participant
      May 18, 2017

      Does Adobe monitor these comments?

      For years I could do this as explained above and it is driving me crazy. If there was a solution please advise.

      So I am going to go through it again to maybe stir something up.  While using the pen tool I could "temporarily" get the selection tool or direct selection tool. Toggle back and forth but always have the pen tool under it all as the main active tool.  This would allow me to never change my left hand position and was very efficient.  This still works with the RECTANGLE TOOL but is not nearly as necessary for that. But now on the PEN TOOL, which I use 95% of the time, you can't get to the BLACK ARROW.  The step missing is getting back to the "selection tool" by hitting the "Command>Option>Tab". This makes quickly selecting a grouped object difficult. To  hit "V" to get there takes me out of the PEN TOOL which I then have to reselect. This is 1000's of extra clicks over a day or 2 due to the complexity of my illustrations.

      This has to be a code glitch and an easy fix if ADOBE is paying attention. Nothing else happens when I "Command>Option>Tab" with the PEN TOOL.

      Anybody else have a solution for me.

        Monika Gause
        Community Expert
        Monika GauseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        May 18, 2017

        They've changed that behaviour. You might want to report a feature request.

        Does it help to get the Group selection tool instead? If so: press Cmd + Alt while using the pen tool

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