Why don't Preferences work like they should?

[blubino]

Everytime I set my preferences in Illustrator they always default back to original preset.

The most frustrating thing is that in Units, the General setting, which is the preset for documement size, defaults to Points.

MM, CM, Pixels or Inches I could see but Points? Someone please enlighten we where on the planet earth document/canvas size is measured in Points?

Once Preferences is set by user, it should be permenent until changed again... Everyone agree?

[Bill Silbert]

Have you tried quitting the program and then rebooting after everything is set up as you like it? That should "solidify" your choices and keep them as defaults. Keep in mind, though that even if you change your default measurement preferences that change will only apply to new documents. The new choices will not override any of the preferences in an existing document.

[blubino]

Thats the problem, it never saves the default measurement. It always defaults back to Points especially when opening new documents.

Tech support indicates that this is the way it is designed. 

The bigger question is why would document size measurements EVER be in points?? 

[blubino]

sorry "chosen measurment"

[Doug A Roberts]

The setting should reflect the document preset you use. If you open a 'Print' preset doc, it should be in millimetres, a 'Web' preset in pixels etc. -- unless you change the setting with the document open.

[blubino]

The way it should work is that when you set your presets, thet should apply to any and all documents you open.

We happen to need it for setting up press ready print files (in the US) so we want it to defaut it Inches 100% of the time.

Again, with that said, having it default back to Points is useless and a waste of time having to constantly change it.

[Ton Frederiks]

The Preference setting is used when the document does not have a unit setting, like a jpeg or pdf.

[blubino]

Ton,a jpeg and pdf are file types.

The unit setting is for measurement, two entirely different things. 

[Monika Gause]

You can safely assume that Ton knows that difference fairly well.

JPEG or PDF don't have a unit setting, so Illustrator will use your preferences.

When files have a unit setting, then Illustrator will not change it - no matter what is set up in your preferences.

That's how it works. We can only tell you that (95% of people on this forum are not even staff). If you want this changed, post a feature request on Uservoice.