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Question

Text Tool Stopped working

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
July 27, 2017
6 replies
4381 views

I have Photoshop Elements 12. My text tool suddenly stopped working. It worked, and then the next time I opened Photoshop it didn't. I did not make any changes to the program. The error I am getting is:

"Could not complete request because something prevented the text engine from being initialized."

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thank you!

LeeAnn

This topic has been closed for replies.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

@zazzycat, thanks for letting us know how you resolved the issue.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

@zazzycat when you get a notification email for this post, there should be a link in the email. It should be the blue heading that says Re: Text Tool Stops Working. Just click on it and it will bring you to this post in the forum. (There is no point me showing you a screenshot since you won't be able to see it in an email. )

Here is a text link to this post that you can copy and paste into your browser.
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements-discussions/text-tool-stopped-working/m-p/14144036#M93188

Z

zazzycat

Known Participant

Ah, thank you! Isn't life easy when you know how!

I'll try the screen shot here but in case it won't transfer (given there now appears to be a whole community of gremlins living in my computer), what seems to be the problem is this:

* Intermittent working of the text tool - I'm in the process of designing a cover for my next book so am making several different pix to choose from. I draw in the text tool dotted line box on the image without problem. Then: sometimes, the bar indicating where to type (eg. centre) will come up, I then check I have the chosen font and size and everything goes smoothly, as normal.

* BUT, then, without warning, I will draw the box on the next image, and no "line" indicating where to type comes up - the box remains blank.

* Then I can go back some hours later, and still nothing will work on any picture.

* So I leave it to the next day, try again, and lo and behold, once more it works perfectly for perhaps three or four images, and then will show nothing to enable me to type on the next picture.

It is really frustrating, especially since I am such a technical dinosaur - and being self-taught on photoshop, I tend to panic if something goes wrong!

So any suggestions, Greg, will be very gratefully appreciated.

Best wishes,

Fiona

PS: Hooray! I wasn't sure if the text box would show, but it does and you can see there is no line to show where to type the text.

TestResultsPDF_RTPCR-_Fiona_Fraser-Thomson.pdf

Greg_S.

Community Expert

Hi Fiona. There is no reason to be embarrased about asking questions on this forum. That is what we are here for.

I'm glad that you have been able to figure out how to take a screenshot. Unfortunately, if you are responding by email, we are unable to see your attached images. And if you only read my response via email, you will not see the screenshot that I have supplied showing you where to reset the text tool. So, please come to the forum and view my response to see if it helps you. Otherwise, please use the insert screenshot icon on the forum to show us the screenshot of your monitor. (The screenshot below shows you which icon to use.)

Z

zazzycat

Known Participant

Hi Greg - and thanks for your vote of confidence!

Being the technophobe that I am, I went into Adobe Community Help and
clicked on the Photoshop Elements title - but can't find where we were
having the conversation so I could send you the screenshot, as you suggest.

Could you please give me some sort of link that will get me into our
conversations?

Best wishes,

Fiona

Greg_S.

Community Expert

@zazzycat, the reset tool option is found in the Tool Options panel. Click on the text tool and the panel should open.

If you still can't find it, show us a screenshot of your screen, and tell us exactly what is not working with the tool.

Z

zazzycat

Known Participant

Hello Greg and thank you so much for your prompt reply - it is much
appreciated.

I know you'll laugh, but I'm a complete techno idiot! I don't know how
to take a screen shot! So rather than be even more embarrassed than I
already am, I just looked online and found that I have a button called
"Print Screen" on my keyboard! Who knew!!! So below is the screenshot of
the box ready to be typed in, but nothing allowing me to type. Sorry
about it being triplicated - I don't know why that happened!

When I click on the text button, all it does is to make it a grey colour
to show it has been chosen. I can draw the dotted box in without any
problem, as you can see - but then, where there usually is a vertical
line to indicate where to start typing in the text, there is nothing. I
tried changing the font, but that made no difference. I tried changing
the font size, but that made no difference. There is a minute arrow head
to the top right of the text button, but all that does is to say it is
the horizontal text tool. There is nothing else to open up.

I hope that is sufficient info for you - and I am very grateful for your
help.

With best wishes,

Fiona

Sheena Kaul

Community Manager

Moving to Photoshop Elements

Peru Bob

Community Expert

Try resetting the preferences:

Restore default preferences

Preference settings control how Photoshop Elements Editor displays images, cursors, and transparencies, saves files, uses plug‑ins and scratch disks, and so on. If the application exhibits unexpected behavior, the preferences file could be damaged. You can restore all preferences to their defaults.
Note: Deleting the preferences file is an action that cannot be undone.
Do one of the following:
Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Mac: Option+Command+Shift) immediately after Photoshop Elements begins launching. Click Yes to delete the Adobe Photoshop Elements settings file.
Go to Edit > Preferences (Mac: Photoshop Elements > Preferences > General), click the Reset Preferences on next launch button, and then click OK. When you restart Adobe Photoshop Elements, all preferences are reset to default settings.

from here:

Preference file locations for Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements