Manipulating type in Illustrator?

[JoseCalderon]

I had a rather lengthy project I did in Adobe Illustrator in which I needed to manipulate just 5–6 lines of copy in 13 filies. So I would quickly select the type in the text box, then press the escape key, then press v key. I would then grab the middle text box anchor points to make the text box bigger or smaller. Maniplulating the text boxes worked just like it does in InDesign (by using the direct selection tool). 

I had closed out of Illustrator. Later on I went back in to do revisions and all of a sudden I could not manipulate the text boxe frames withe direct seletion tool as I  before? What gives?
I now noticed that Illustrator 2021 is now in use. Did the upgrade change something with the type engine?

Btw, does anybody remember when Illustrator had the option to run like InDesign? I, for one, could really use that feature for working with type again. Many times I prefer to set the text in Illustrator if I am already creating artwork for a file. I figure it saves time by using just one application.
Can anyone understand and offer any advice? I hope so. Thank you to anybody that may be able to help.

[Monika Gause]

Can you please show screenshots of what you are doing?

And what exactly you want tochange in the type?

And what you use the direct selection tool for?