Common Problems in Illustrator, Pt 2

If you’re on a PC, don’t forget to use Ctrl instead of Cmd and Alt instead of Opt.

All my panels have disappeared!

Scenario: You were aiming for one of your favorite keyboard shortcuts, but to your dismay, you accidentally erased all of your tools and panels. The only thing left is your menu, but you’ve scoured through it and can’t find a way to bring back your tools.

Solution: Don’t panic. You’ve accidentally pressed the Tab key. Just press it again to bring everything back.

Once you know what you’re dealing with, Tab is pretty useful for getting a clear, unobstructed view of your artwork. You can take it one step further by pressing F a few times to cycle through different screen modes. When you’re done, just press Tab to bring your tools back and the F key again until you’re back to your preferred view.

I can’t do ANYTHING to my object.

Scenario: You’re working on an object when unexpectedly one (or more) of your selection edges disappear. You thought you’ve had this problem before (Cmd+H, anyone?), but this time, you can’t invisibly select it. It’s like it’s stuck in place.



Solution: Your object is locked. You may have hit Cmd+2, which locks your current selection. You can manually find and click the lock icon in your layers palette, or press Cmd+Opt+2 to unlock all your objects.



As long as we’re on the subject of locking, I should mention that Cmd+Opt+Shift+2 will lock everything except your current selection. It’s a doozy of a shortcut, and it’s useful for working on one selection without accidentally modifying the rest of your artwork.

It can be confusing to keep track of these three shortcuts, so here’s a breakdown:

Cmd+2 = Locks your selected object(s)
Cmd+Opt+Shift+2 = Locks all deselected objects
Cmd+Opt+2 = Unlocks all objects

Everything looks weird. I can’t see fills and strokes.

Scenario: You don’t know what you did, but this time you’ve really messed things up. Everything appears in plain black and white. You can’t see any of your effects, or even your fills and strokes. In fact, there’s nothing but thin black outlines where your artwork used to be.



Solution: You’ve entered the outline mode. Cmd+Y will restore your view to preview mode.



Like many of the other “problem” shortcuts, Cmd+Y can be used to your advantage. Entering outline mode is great way to find hidden paths in complex artwork. You might also prefer to work in this mode if you have an older computer that can’t render fast enough when previewing.

From outline mode to invisible edges, shortcut accidents can be quickly reversed once you know the trick. Even if you have a problem that wasn’t addressed in this article, take comfort in knowing you’re not the first to have mysterious Illustrator issues. Adobe’s support center, friendly user forums, and other online resources are great ways to find the offending problem. Of course, Shutterstock’s Illustrators Forum is also a handy tool.

Stay positive, and know that troubleshooting mistakes bring you one step closer towards mastery of Adobe Illustrator.