Newbie Question - Select one letter in a word

[punkgrandad]

As a newbie I am trying to work with type and I cannot select/highlight one letter from a word, I always get the text box appear. For example in the word 'vector' I would like to select the 'c' and amend it by using glyph functionality.

I am trying to use the type tool as shown in various tutorials, (and as I do in photoshop, word etc), but just end up with Lorem Ipsum.

I have looked at the preferences and I can switch off the auto fill but I still can't highlight one letter in a word. Please help....its driving me nuts.

[Myra Ferguson]

You should be able to use the Type Tool to insert the cursor inside either point type (one line of text) or area type (a text block that contains multiple lines of text and highlight one character. Are you not able to do that?

If you go to Window > Type > Glyphs, you should be able to select a glyph to replace the highlighted character.

Or do you mean you'd like more control over the manipulation of one letter? You can do that by selecting the Touch Type Tool (nested with the Type Tool). With the Touch Type Tool selected, click on a letter. Instead of seeing the highlighted character as the inverse of the selection, you'll see a box around the character. You can move, rotate, or scale the highlighted character independent of the rest of the text.

Here's more about type in Illustrator.

[punkgrandad]

Thanks Myra, unfortunately I cannot insert the cursor inside the point type or area type and then drag to highlight. As soon as I hit the left mouse button it creates a new line of text in its own text box. I am very new to illustrator but have been using Photoshop for a number of years, and was expecting the same functionality.

I can't find this issue with anyone else after trawling through the internet so I'm starting to think I may uninstall, and re-install and see if it fixes it. Its very frustrating.

Once again, thanks for replying...Colin

[Jacob Bugge]

punkgrandad,

To elaborate on just one aspect of the comprehensive answer by Myra, sometimes it can be difficult to successfully get into the actual Type; are you ClickDragging across the c with the Type Tool (which ought to leave it highlighted)?

[punkgrandad]

Hi Jacob, yes I am. Although I am new to illustrator I have been using Photoshop for a number of years and was expecting the same functionality. I've tried resizing and zooming, left mouse, right mouse, pen tool......its very frustrating. Next step is uninstall and re-install. Many thanks for the suggestion, Colin

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Colin,

There are some easier and less serious options than reinstalling, if no brighter suggestions appear. You can start from the top of the list below (skipping 7) which is irrelevant here):

THE LIST

If things that should work simply refuse to (all possibilities exhausted including the A) - D) below (and carefully making sure you are performing (all) the needed things)), you may try (the relevant part(s) of) the list 1) - 8 ) below.

Sometimes, (certain) things may fail or stop working for no apparent reason. When the (other) possible reasons/cures fail to work, it may be some kind of (temporay or permanent) corruption, or even some inconvenient preference setting(s), which may be cured with something on the following list set up in an attempt to provide a catchall solution for otherwise unsolvable cases. It starts with a few easy and harmless suggestions 1) - 3) for milder cases, and goes on with three alternative ways 4) - 6) of resetting preferences to the defaults (easily but irreversibly and more laboriously but more thoroughly and also reversibly), then follows a list 7) of various other possibilities, and it ends with a full reinstallation 8 ). If no other suggestions work, or if no other suggestions appear, you may start on the list and decide how far to go and/or which may be relevant.

The following is a general list of things you may try when

A) The issue is not in a specific file,

B) You have a printer correctly installed, connected, and turned on if it is physical printer (you may use Adobe PDF/Acrobat Distiller as the default printer with no need to have a printer turned on, obviously you will need to specify when you actually need to print on paper), and

C) It is not caused by issues with opening a file from external media.

D) It is not caused by other applications (you may close down/disable everything else running, including browsers and antivirus, then try again). There are quite a few usual suspects that may disturb and confuse Illy (job description Adobe Illustrator) so she moves in mysterious ways (even more than usual, some would say).

You may have tried/done some of them already; 1) and 2) and 3) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 4) and 5) and 6) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt/inconvenient preferences); 7) is a list in itself, and 8 ) is the last resort.

If possible/applicable, you should save current artwork first, of course.

1) Close down Illy and open again;

2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to at least 5 times);

3) Log out of your Adobe account and log back in;

4) Close down Illy, then close down al other applications, then open Illy again;

5a) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);

5b) Or in the current CC version click Reset Preferences at the bottom right of the Preferences window and restart (also easy but irreversible);

6a) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible), for CS3 - CC you may find the folder here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/preference-file-location-illustrator.html

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/moved-anchor-points-snap-back-to-original-location-after-...

6b) Or follow the instructions here: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/setting-preferences.html

7) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);

Failing everything else, you may consider going on, but there are real dangers ahead unless you run one of the latest two CC versions, or unless you have the installers for both application(s) and possible update(s) on your computer, and even then you may need to restore plugins and whatnot afterwards if you have customized things:

8 ) A) Uninstall (ticking the box to delete the preferences if applicable), B) run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and C) reinstall. You may try without step B), but sometimes it is needed, because otherwise things may linger.

As it appears from this thread, it may be worth repeating this if it fails to help the first time:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2283530

To uninstall:

https://www.adobe.com/search.html#q=uninstall%20illustrator&sort=relevancy&start=1

Cleaner Tool:

http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

[punkgrandad]

Thank Jacob, this is a fantastic help and I am bookmarking this for the future.

Before I read this I had already uninstalled, shut down, rebooted and re-instlled....and it works 🙂 🙂

Thank you once again,

Colin

[Monika Gause]

Are you sure it's an editable text at all?

In Preferences > Type is "Select Type object by path only turned on? If so, can you try and turn it off?

[punkgrandad]

Hi Monika, It was editable but I appear to have had a glitch. Reinstalled and its working fine now. Thank you very much for your help,

Colin

[Jacob Bugge]

For my part you are welcome, Colin.