illustrator annoying mystery

[iSign]

I have version 9 loaded on 2 workstations & CS2 on 2 (I have 2 licenses)

I mostly use 9 & only use CS to open newer files.

I have a strange occurance that has been bugging me for months since my employee left & I'm using his old workstation more often because it's on the second floor where I moved my Edge when he left...

anyway, it was only bothering me a little at first but now I gotta figure it out (or get you folks to) ...when I use my regular black selection pointer, as soon as I move it over a contour, I get a little X right on that spot, unless there is a control point in that exact spot, then I get a little black dot instead of an X.

There is another behavior that seems related, at least in the fact that it's the only other thing that is different then my other set-ups, and that is like a "snap" feature that inhibits how little I can move stuff because sometimes I might try to move something a small amount & the display of it snaps back to where it was... until I move it a lot.

I've been all through the preferences... but I can't find anything different from the way I've set up illustrator for years.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Sounds like you have Smart Guides turned on.

 

[Rick]

I only have "snap to point" on. It sounds like you have "snap to grid" on and that would drive me crazy too....

 

[Bigdawg]

If you accidentally hit "control u" to ungroup something, it will turn smart guides on and off, but I don't think that's what you did if there's no writing next to the cursor.

It's just a "smart cursor" you could say. When you are over an object like a box, it will show the black square meaning you will be selecting the whole thing. When you see the little circle it is showing you where the control points are. It does it with both types of cursors.

 

[iSign]

ok... I'm making some progress.. Thanks Fred!
I never used "smart guides" (knowingly anyway) but in preferences, under "smart guides" there is no on/off choice so I never thought to make changes there.
However there is a "snap tolerance" & on Tony's old machine it was set to 4pt. I changed it to 0pt. & that did the trick on the little X's showing up by my selection tool!

Rick, where is "snap to point" (or grid) located in Illustrator version 9?
When I try to move something to line it up with something else, & the display makes the appearance of the object being moved snap back to where it was... if I let go of it in a different plac... it will still go there... but not showing up "there" while moving it makes it hard to move it to the precise spot.

edited to say I found the "snap to" stuff and that was the problem... thanks Rick! it's amazing after so many years I pull down a menu to do the things I need & I just don't even see the stuff I dion't need... (but when someone has changed them on me... I don't see that either)

And Stacey... I saw the smartguide on/off choice (along with the ctrl-U notation, in that same view menu) ...I don't see what that does... but I guess that is because my tolerance is set to zero now. If it was back to 4pt, I guess I could have fixed it with ctrl-U... untill the next time I hit ctrl-U by mistake again)

 

[Geary]

Doug,
"Snap to point"....not under FILE > Preferences >General in 9? It is in 7.

~Gear

 

[Rick]

On CS2, Go to your "View" window and near the bottom should be "Snap to Point" and "Snap to Grid"...like Geary just said, some older version of Illy have it in the preferences area but I can't remember version 9

 

[iSign]

thank you both!
I edited my last post, probably after you opened it... but in 9 it is in the "view" menu.

now that those issues are fixed...
...maybe someone can help with another less annoying issue... which just moved up to be the most annoying illustrator issue.

in my alphabetical display of fonts... some newly added fonts occur below Z in a second alphabetical listing (& sometimes a third) ...can I make them be all one list again? I thought I used to do this by trashing the "aiprefs" file & then when I re-launched the program, all was right in the world...

but I did a search for aiprefs and there is no such file to be found

 

[Geary]

A "second alphabetical listing" of fonts. Now that is a weird one on me Doug. I don't believe I've ever ran across that one. But, again, I'm a Macster....so maybe it's a bit different in my platform. Any font I've ever added just keeps adding them in the existing order.

~G.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Thanks Doug, I wondered about those Xs too, when I started getting them- I hate snap-to. I see the benefit in it, but I hate it for general stuff.

With the fonts, can you right-click in the list ,and go "sort" , or something like that? I'm just guessing, I haven't tried it.

 

[scott pagan]

i think it's related to this file:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS2\Support Files\Contents\Windows\System\AdobeFnt09.lst

... but don't hold me to it.

i have the same sorting issues on my Adobe CS2 font lists.