If you want to take some time with it and "fix" your Illustrator files you can do so using Area Type. To do so Draw a box around an area of text that you want to make into flowable text. Lock the box (Command-2). Select all of the text with the direct selection tool and Cut it (Command-X). Unlock the box (Option-Command-2). Click on the box with the Area Type tool and paste in (Command-V) the text into the box. It is now flowable. Caution, though, occasionally a space between words may get dropped. It can be an arduous process but it will leave you with an .ai file that is searchable. See screen shot below: I just realized that you said Windows 7. It will still work just substitute the word Control for Command in the keyboard shortcuts I mentioned above. Use Alt where I said Option. ... View more

Whenever applying Pathfinder to outlined text all of the text must be made into a single compound path first. ... View more

If the Direct Selection tool is working normally you should be able to simply click on any point of a drawn object and select it. If the entire shape is selected first with the regular selection tool then it won't work. If you've clicked on an unselected object with the direct selection tool then all of the points of that object should appear hollow and clicking on any of those will turn that point solid. If this is not working then you may need to delete your InDesign preference file. To do this on a Mac close InDesign and open a Finder window in column view click on your Home folder and with the option key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go menu. Then follow the screen shot below and delete the two files that are highlighted: To delete the preferences on a PC launch Indesign with Alt-Crtl-Shift pressed. Once the preferences are deleted any corruption, if it exists, should be gone. ... View more

Deleting the preference files for a program will set it back to its default and thus remove any possible corruption that might have affected the program. Assuming that we are talking about Illustrator (since this is the Illustrator Forum) then on a Mac open a Finder Window in column view and with your Home folder selected and the option key pressed go under the Finder's Go menu and choose Library. After that follow the screen shot below and delete the highlighted files indicated: Make sure that Illustrator is closed when you do this. On a PC you can delete the preferences by launching Illustrator with Alt-Crtl-Shift pressed and answering the prompt that you want to delete the preference file. ... View more

Are you doing this in Illustrator? Mac or PC? All fonts or just this one? Have you deleted the preference files of whatever program this is being done in? ... View more

Draw the additional closed paths in position to where you want them then select all paths and use the Pathfinder Unite option. See screen shot below: ... View more

If what you're saying is that you have an Illustrator object that is made up of several objects and you want a outline of the entire combined shape then select the whole thing and then use the Pathfinder Unite option to make it a single shape and then apply a stoke to the entire combined shape. ... View more

When you apply the Paragraph Style make sure that you have Shift and Option pressed. This will detach any previous styles that may have been applied. ... View more

I was unable to download your file but based on what I think I understand I created an all black jpeg of my own. Then I placed it in Illustrator, embedded it and ran Image-Trace (default settings) on it. Then I clicked the Expand button next to Image-Trace on the Control strip. I was then able to give it a fill of none and apply a black stroke around it. I then tested to see if the eraser tool would have any effect on the inside as your's did. The same thing happened to me when I first tried it. I then selected it and expanded it again using Expand under the object menu. It did change the outline to a compound path but this time the eraser tool had no effect on the inside and worked correctly on the outline. If you can use a compound path for your outline then this could be a work-around. ... View more

Just to make sure that you've deleted your preferences correctly try the manual method. In a Finder window in column view click on your Home folder and with the option key pressed go under the Finder Go menu (which will make Library appear) and then follow the screen shot below and delete the two preferences files highlighted. Make sure that Illustrator is not launched when you do this: When you relaunch Illustrator brand new preferences will be automatically created. ... View more

When this has happened to me in the past it only took force quitting InDesign and trying to make the pdf again. If that doesn't work I would suggest trashing your preferences: Troubleshooting 101: Replace, or "trash" your InDesign preferences You can follow the progress of a pdf you're making by using the Background Tasks window which can be found through the Windows Menu>Utilities>Background Tasks. ... View more

Your original post said that you were doing a catalog. However, the printer specs appear to be for either an envelope front or a postcard. That is because you have a space in the upper right for an indicia which would be the seal for the postage-paid code and a space in the lower right for the address. If you are actually doing a catalog then this set of printer specs is inappropriate. I must ask again as to why you are doing this in Illustrator? Even with a large amount of Photoshop images setting up the page layout in InDesign and importing the images into the InDesign document is far more efficient than multiple art boards. There is good reason that Adobe makes separate programs for different functions. ... View more

Unless your printer is insisting on the job being done in Illustrator a multi-page document such as this should be set up in InDesign since that is what the program is designed for. That being said judging on the printer specs your art boards should be set to 6 in x 9 in and your bleeds should all be set for .0625 in since the specs show a total of 6.125 in x 9.125 in. See screenshot below: Again, though, I strongly urge you to find out if this job can be set up in InDesign. An Illustrator file with possibly 100 art boards is a very scary prospect to me. ... View more

This usually happens when opening an .ai file created in an earlier version of Illustrator (although it should ask you if you want to convert the file from legacy upon its first opening). There is a way to avoid having the word [Converted] added to the file name. In the General section of the Illustrator Preferences make sure that "Append [Converted] Upon Opening Legacy Files" is unchecked. See screen shot below: Make sure you do this with no documents open and it will become a preference for all documents you open. It may not remove it from files that have already had [Converted] added. Also make sure going forward that you are saving documents to the version of Illustrator that you are running. ... View more

This sounds like it could be the result of a corrupt preference file. Delete your InDesign preference file and see if the problem recurs. ... View more

I tried Monika's solution which works very well up to a point. On its own it doesn't allow you to maintain the way the baseline of the text aligns to the object. I did find though that if you set your type on a path options dialog like the screen shot below then the proper alignment can be created: ... View more

The only way that I could think to do it is to make three copies of the type and the path and place each on a different layer. Then with two of the layers locked delete two of the characters from that layer and rotate the path so that the remaining letter is in the correct position. If I'm interpreting your question correctly then the result should look something like the screen shot below: With this method the text is still editable. ... View more

Actually Frans does have a better idea than what I originally suggested. To execute this method see the screen shot below of the Export to Adobe Pdf Output tab: Choose one of the Gray Profiles listed under Destination and the resulting pdf will be all Grayscale. ... View more

Most people in the nineties were saving Illustrator files as .eps. Have you tried that file extension? ... View more

Based on the fact that the slug lines for the .indd document are right on the trim line it appears that something was altered in the actual InDesign document. If the InDesign document was set up correctly to the trim size and you output the pdf with document bleed checked (as you have) then the slug line would actually appear below the bleed area. Without seeing the actual InDesign file it is difficult to say what needs to be fixed as the settings in your export to pdf dialogs look good. One last question. Is this to ultimately appear as a spread printed on one side and if so then why not export it as a spread? If it is a front and back then why was it set up as a spread? ... View more

InDesign does not have white as a color. What appears to be white in a document is the paper color—which is usually white. That is why when you did your test with an actual color it worked. ... View more

The best way to do spacing in InDesign is to use a specific leading value for within each paragraph and a space after amount (or in some cases space before) using the Character and Paragraph Panels. For 12 point type a leading of two extra points—represented as a setting as 14 point leading—in the character panel and whatever amount feels comfortable between paragraphs (I would suggest trying 1/8 inch to start). Using this method gives you specific control as to how your spacing is applied. I would set it up as in the screen shot below: ... View more

It has happened to me in the past with a warning that certain fonts had to be outlined. If ligatures were the actual reason then so be it. ... View more

I can think of two possible reasons why this might have happened. The first is that several years ago Illustrator started showing the following dialog when opening an older file (either an .ai or .eps) with a newer version of the program: My memory of when this first came in (more than ten years ago) was that if you clicked OK without using Update the type appeared on screen both in the preview and artwork mode but when I ran some tests using CC 2017 and a fifteen year old .ai file it no longer shows even outlined text in artwork mode. It only shows an empty frame as if it had been embedded into the file. In either case the text can be "reinstated" by going through the Type Menu to Legacy Text to Update All Legacy Text. The other possible reason for this might be that if the file you're opening in Illustrator was originally saved as a pdf and the fonts needed for the file are not open or installed on the computer then a warning should come up that text will be converted to outlines. If it didn't come up or you missed it then the only possible way to fix this is if the original pdf still exists. If it does then make sure that all fonts are loaded. ... View more

What type of font are you using: Opentype, Postscript Type1 or Truetype? If you're using Postscript Type 1 do you have Printer fonts for each weight? If you're using the one of the others do you have all of the weights loaded? ... View more

On a Mac while in the Finder  you can click on one of your ai files and type command-i to get the info window. In that Window you can click on the "Open with:" pull-down menu and choose the version of Illustrator you want the file to open with. After you've done that click on the "Change All" button below the pull-down and all similar files on your machine should be converted. See the screen shots below: ... View more