Temporary hand tool from within text object

[DougKatz]

In earlier Illustrator versions, when working in a type object (obviously with the type tool active), I could press the command key and space bar simultaneously, then release the Command key (while continuing to press the space bar) to access the hand tool. This enabled me to quickly navigate around the art board without disturbing the content of the type object. It was a particularly convenient shortcut. When I finished moving around the artboard, as soon as I released the space bar, the type tool reappeared in my type object  exactly where I left it, ready to continue typing.

In AICC 2017 (21.0.0) on Sierra, this finger action doesn't temporarily escape the type object. Instead – with the release of the command key – holding the space bar adds spaces at the insertion point. Can anyone reproduce this? If it's a shortcut lost to history, has anyone found an alternative?

Thanks.

[DougKatz]

Wondering if my question is presented incoherently, or it's just that no one else is experiencing this. I'll try to clarify if I've fumbled the question.

[Monika Gause]

I can't reproduce the earlier behaviour you described. I've tried with CS5 on Yosemite.

Are you sure you're not referring to InDesign?

[DougKatz]

Quite positive. Never use InDesign. I'm also positive I have not described this behavior clearly enough to you, Monika, because if anyone can make sense of an incoherent question, I know it to be you.

The steps:

1. Make a text object (Point or Area, no matter) and type some gibberish.

2. Click to set an insertion point anywhere in the text.

3. With the type tool selected and the insertion point set, press and hold the COMMAND key first, then, without releasing the COMMAND key, press and hold the SPACE BAR so you are pressing both keys at once. You will see the Zoom tool cursor.

4. Release the COMMAND key while still holding the SPACE BAR. You will now see the Hand tool icon.

5. In CS5 (my last version before CC2017), as long as you kept the SPACE BAR pressed, you could  actually navigate around Illustrator's canvas (for example, to check another text block's style or content, to drag down below the edge of the Illustrator window, to look at another artboard or the like). As you navigated, the original text object remained unaltered.

6. Release the SPACE BAR and you: (a) return to the type tool cursor, and (b) the insertion point is exactly where you left it in the original text object.

But in AICC 2017 (on Sierra v. Lion), when I follow these steps, I do indeed get the Hand tool and can indeed navigate around the artboard, BUT (and it's a killer but) while I'm navigating, spaces are being inserted where I left the insertion point. In other words, "outside the text object" I have the functionality of the Hand tool, but at the same time, "inside the text object" holding the space bar is doing what it does – adding spaces. In CS5, this "in-text" function of the SPACE BAR was disabled after the above finger-dance.

Can you not replicate this in CS5? Or maybe it's only because you're on Yosemite rather than the archaic OS I was using?

[Monika Gause]

THank you for describing the procedure exactly.

I don't have CS5 open at the moment, but I tried in CC2017/Yosemite. It worked.

So of course it might be Sierra. But then there are a couple of issues with modifier keys that are not caused by the system alone, but by combinations of the system and

- Wacom drivers

- some browser plugins

- Teamviewer and other remote software

- some banking software

- and maybe a couple of other apps and plugins and extensions and whatnot.

Don't know if you have this kind of stuff running. But you might try  and restart the computer and then launch only Illustrator and try again.

[DougKatz]

Hmm. Well I have Astute Graphics plug-ins, as you know. And I have a Wacom. I have none of the other specifics in your list and very few other applications, none especially exotic. So as you say, it's Sierra or Wacom or AG or some obscure combination. I'll see if anyone using Sierra sees the same, although I have the impression that few on the forum are using Sierra (maybe for good reason). If no one else responds, I'll just have to pull out the AG plug-ins and the Wacom driver and test, test, test. Alternatively I can learn to live without the shortcut. Just that it's been a wonderful convenience for many years.

Thank you as always for taking the time to check this, Monika. If I find anything else out as I explore, I'll be sure to come back here and post.

[Monika Gause]

I have a Wacom as well - driver is version 6.3.15-1 (it's not the latest version and it's an old Intuos 3).

I also have all the AG plugins installed.

Hope you find it.

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

JamArtz wrote:

In earlier Illustrator versions, when working in a type object (obviously with the type tool active), I could press the command key and space bar simultaneously, then release the Command key (while continuing to press the space bar) to access the hand tool. This enabled me to quickly navigate around the art board without disturbing the content of the type object.

Hi JamArtz

I just tried this and was able to pan the page in Illustrator with selected text with the Option key alone on a Mac.

To clarify:

• Command is a shortcut to temporarily use the Selection tool in AI, PS, ID.

• Option pans in Illustrator if you have selected text

• Option copies if you have a selected frame. Invoking the Control key selects the text frame.

• Spacebar pans if nothing is selected

• Command + Spacebar is the shortcut for Spotlight, but if you start to drag, you will use the Adobe shortcut for zoom. I think you can bypass this and just use Option if the text is selected.

(And if someone reads this later, use these shortcuts and drag the mouse.)

Does this work for you?

[DougKatz]

Jane, you have discovered a new shortcut in Illustrator! Or at least new since pre- AICC days! This is wonderful.

If you tried to pan with the option key alone  while in a text object using, for example AICS 5.5, you'd get exactly nowhere. Your cursor would be dead to the world. Try it if you have access, you'll see. You would have to do the finger dance I described above. But the simple press of the option key in AICC2017 functions as my finger combinations did earlier. And less intricate to boot. I'm very grateful.

[jane-e]

Jane, you have discovered a new shortcut in Illustrator! Or at least new since pre- AICC days! This is wonderful.

I was trying to figure that out! I went back to 2015.3 and it worked there. I haven't checked back further yet. I tested it because of what I know about InDesign—I didn't know it before. I have 5.5 on my other computer that I keep thinking I should get rid of because I never turn it on. This one only has four versions on it.

Thank you, JamArtz​ for asking the question!