Problems selecting object to align to
I'd love to understand how Illustrator decides which object is the key object when using the "Align to Key Object" function. For me, it decides on the wrong object an uncanny percentage of the time. You'd think it would do as well as random chance, but no.
I understand that when it chooses the wrong object to align to, I have to then select the object I want but sometimes it just won't highlight the preferred object. Why? Ideas for how to control the process?
(FreeHand had the common sense to have an easily understandable sequence when centering; it aligned on the object that was larger in the alignment axis. Easy.)
Thanks,
Dave
fhdave wrote:
... it decides on the wrong object...
... but the question is why am I sometimes not able to select the object I want to align to ...
dave, your input is confusing, first you said that Illustrator aligns to a wrong (not the key) object, then you said that you are not able to select a key object. Please, clarify
Similar Messages
-
I'm a new Illustrator user, but I'm having a problem that I doesn't make sense to me. I cannot select an object without also moving it.
Steps to recreate problem:
Create a new document in Illustrator
Draw 2 rectangles
Choose the "Selection Tool (V)"
Click and release the left mouse button over the rectangle that is not currently selected
At this point, it does not indicate that this rectangle is selected. If I do not move my mouse, it stays like that.
However, as soon as I move my mouse ~10 pixels, the rectangle is suddenly selected and moving with the mouse. A half a second later (or so), the object is automatically dropped.
It almost acts as though my mouse button is "stuck". But I've reproduced this with the on-board trackpad and an external mouse. The "Direct Selection Tool" causes the same symptoms. However, I have not seen any other functions that don't work as expected.
This is on a latest-generation Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion. The only other CS product I've been using is Dreamweaver, and I haven't noticed any problems there.
I've called Adobe tech support and we got as far as deleting my Preferences. (which didn't seem to affect the issue) However, we were disconnected twice (with no call back either time) and after > 15 minutes on hold for a third attempt, I'm pretty frustrated.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.After searching through these forums more, I found someone suggest something that fixed my problem. I'm adding the solution here in the hopes that someone else finds it.
The culprit was Right Zoom. Adding Illustrator to its exclusion list seemed to resolve the issue. -
CS4 - Problems selecting objects
I have recently upgraded to Fireworks CS4 from CS3 but I
don't think that this problem has been there always in CS4.
Basically, I create a document with a few layer groups. Then
place an image in one layer group, input some text in another etc.
If I then want to select the image, I have to click on the layer
group or layer itself in the layers palette before Fireworks allows
me to select it. I'm sure that I used to just be able to click on
anything to select it.
I first noticed this behavior when working on a document
where I created a few layer groups that I then shard between pages,
but subsequently I have had this happen on all docs including very
simple ones.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
TomHeathrowe
You are a saviour! Thanks so much, really appreciate that - I
must have selected it by mistake when I was sharing layers between
pages. You just stopped me trashing prefs and trying it in a new
user. Awesome.
Tom -
Hello,
I’ve finally managed to deploy my first guest cluster with a shared VHDX using a service template.
So, I now want to try and update my service template. However, whenever I try to do anything with it, in the services section, I receive the error:
Unable to perform the job because one or more of the selected objects are locked by another job. To find out which job is locking the object, in the jobs view, group by status, and find the running or cancelling job for the object. ID 2606
Well I tried that and there doesn’t seem to be a job locking the object. Both the cluster nodes appear to be up and running, and I can’t see a problem with it at all. I tried running the following query in SQL:
SELECT * FROM [VirtualManagerDB].[dbo].[tbl_VMM_Lock] where TaskID='Task_GUID'
but all this gives me is an error that says - conversion failed when converting from a character string to uniqueidentifier msg 8169, level 16, State 2, Line 1
I'm no SQL expert as you can probably tell, but I'd prefer not to deploy another service template in case this issue occurs again.
Can anyone help?No one else had this?
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Script to align selected objects to artboard
Hello, I was wondering if anyone had a simple solution to aligning selected items to the artboard. I was going to create an action but then realized it would be more convenient for me to include it in my script file....I have a script to align objects with each other but they dont align to the artboard. Any suggestions?
Hello volocitygraphics,
here is a quick&dirty solution.
Note that the result may be different, if clipping masks are exists in the document.
Please test it at first on copies of your documents. Use it on your own risk.
// ArtboardCenterAroundSelectedPaths.jsx
// works with CS5
// http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1336506?tstart=0
// (title: script to align selected objects to artboard)
// quick & dirty, all selected items will be centered at the active artboard
// (include clipping paths !visible result can be different)
// regards pixxxelschubser 19.Nov. 2013
var aDoc = app.activeDocument;
var Sel = aDoc.selection;
if (Sel.length >0 ) {
var abIdx = aDoc.artboards.getActiveArtboardIndex();
var actAbBds = aDoc.artboards[abIdx].artboardRect;
var vBounds = Sel[0].visibleBounds;
vBounds_Li = vBounds[0];
vBounds_Ob = vBounds[1];
vBounds_Re = vBounds[2];
vBounds_Un = vBounds[3];
if (Sel.length >1 ) {
for (i=1; i<Sel.length ; i++) {
vBdsI = Sel[i].visibleBounds;
if( vBounds_Li > vBdsI[0] ) {vBounds_Li = vBdsI[0]};
if( vBounds_Ob < vBdsI[1] ) {vBounds_Ob = vBdsI[1]};
if( vBounds_Re < vBdsI[2] ) {vBounds_Re = vBdsI[2]};
if( vBounds_Un > vBdsI[3] ) {vBounds_Un = vBdsI[3]};
aDoc.artboards[abIdx].artboardRect = [vBounds_Li +((vBounds_Re - vBounds_Li)/2-(actAbBds[2]-actAbBds[0])/2), vBounds_Ob -((vBounds_Ob - vBounds_Un)/2+(actAbBds[3]-actAbBds[1])/2), vBounds_Li +((vBounds_Re - vBounds_Li)/2-(actAbBds[2]-actAbBds[0])/2)+(actAbBds[2]-actAbBds[0]), vBounds_Ob -((vBounds_Ob - vBounds_Un)/2+(actAbBds[3]-actAbBds[1])/2)+(actAbBds[3]-actAbBds[1])];
} else {
alert ("No selection");
I hope so, the document coordinatesystem is the same as in CS6+
Have fun -
Error on selecting object in ILLUSTRATOR CC
Hi everyone, i have problem with selecting object in illustrator CC, when i select the current object it will also select the other object, i cannot select the object i want, not on the group or clipping mask.. always highlight it both. it often times happen when i doing so much vector object. any help from you guys is so much appreciated..
thanks
CreigThis has been happening through so many versions that I no longer remember when I first encountered it.
One trick that occasionally works when you get such a 'ghost' selection;
Create another object (a small square or whatever).
Select it. Your new object and the ghost will be selected at this point.
Align them using any one of the alignment buttons, it doesn't matter which one.
Immediately undo the move (Cmnd/Ctrl + z) and deselect your new object. About nine times out of ten the ghost selection will be gone as well. If so, you can delete your extraneous object and continue working (until next time).
It doesn't always work. But it is quicker than a restart when it does.
--OB -
Ok, so I am trying to write a script that resizes an object that is selected. I have two objects selected, the one on top is a group item, the one below it is a rectangle. I am trying to resize the rectangle to the size of the group item on top of it with a little margin around it. Here is what I have so far.
var design = app.activeDocument.selection[0];
var top=design.visibleBounds[1]+5*2;
var left=design.visibleBounds[0]-5*2;
var width=design.visibleBounds[2]-design.visibleBounds[0]+10*2;
var height=design.visibleBounds[1]-design.visibleBounds[3]+10*2;
var background = app.activeDocument.selection[1];
background.position = (top, left, width, height);
The problem is the last line there. I'm not sure how to manipulate the position/size of the selected object or if it is even possible I have searched for it and haven not found an answer. Thanks in advance!position property expects an Array, with x and y values, in that order. As for the width and height properties, use them in separate statements
background.position = [left, top];
background.width = width;
background.height = height; -
Help too selecting object [JS]
Hi there
I am problems selecting an object by it id or label. In my script a list items on on page and if the text are using ParagraphStyleName "Itembox 9" i save it in array.
But how do i select the object by id or label ?
I have to do this to make changes on the object later.
Does anyone know about good books on indesign scripting with javascript ?
Regards
TT.
test()
function test(){
var myDocument = app.documents.item(0);
var myElement = myDocument.pages.item(0).pageItems;
var myObjectsToSelect = new Array;
for(myItemCounter = 0; myItemCounter < myElement.length; myItemCounter ++){
var myElementID = myElement[myItemCounter].id;
try {
var myTextParagraphStyleName = myElement[myItemCounter].parentStory.appliedParagraphStyle.name;
if(myTextParagraphStyleName == "item_box_9"){
$.writeln("Element Id ", myElementID);
var myTextContents = myElement[myItemCounter].contents;
$.writeln("Text ", myTextContents);
myObjectsToSelect.push(myElementID);
catch (Error) {
// errorIn contrast with the interface, in scripting you rarely need to select objects in order to do something with them. You collect certain text frames in your array myObjectsToSelect. If e.g. you want to move them, you'd do something like this:
for (i = 0; i < myObjectsToSelect.length; i++)
myObjectsToSelect[i].move (...);
What do you want to do with them?
Peter -
I accidentally changed a setting that changed the way my cursor selects objects...
I used to move my cursor over an object and would see all the paths, now when I hover a small square appears next to the arrow but none of the lines preview. Whatever I did also doesn't allow me to transform an object's size without selecting the free transform option and it no longer shows me that objects are aligned. I am so confused and have no idea what I did but I have tried to reset the workspace and looked at my preferences and I don't see anything that seems like it would be the right item to change...
Has anyone ever had this issue and, if so, did you figure out how to go back?Thanks! I tried both and the bounding box option did help with the one issue. I think that I it must be something to do with the direct select tool because the cursor looks different when it hovers over objects and the "intersect" and "center" previews no longer display when I am trying to move objects or text on the page...
-
CS3: elements sorting of selection object
Hi people!
I think U know that in CS2 app.selection[0] always return LAST selected object
and app.selection[app.selection.length] return FIRST selected object
its logically good way.
but in CS3 Adobe changed this order. And now sorting of objects in this array depend not from selection order.
now question: how to determine the first and last selected object in CS3?
Му collection of cs2 scripts be based on this behoviour.
Did anybody know how to solve this problem. May be exist simple way via javascript? Or harder - via third party plugins...
Help please!>now question: how to determine the first and last selected object in CS3?
Unfortunately, you can no longer do that in CS3. I don't know of any workarounds.
Peter -
Cannot select objects in Adobe Fireworks
I suddenly could not select objects in Adobe Fireworks on my MacBook Pro. I was using a Magic Mouse.
I replace the mouse, but the problem persisted — it wasn't the mouse
I restarted Fireworks, but the problem persisted — it wasn't Fireworks
I searched the Adobe community and found this thread
One user stated that his Spotify was causing the problem. I didn't use spotify but I did just install the Radia app on my machine. It is an app that plays Pandora.
I closed the Radia music app (thinking it similar to Spotify) and the mouse immediately started working again.
If you have this problem. Check for other software causing an issue; specifically ones that have a home up in your task bar.Radia has replied to my support request.
"Hi,
Radia binds your Mac’s media key to enable you control it convenient and fast. Try disabling the binding to see if the problem goes away:
open Radia window > click on the gear icon > select Preferences… > uncheck Bind Media Key"
Restart both your design program and Radia and you should be good to go! -
Moving selected objects up and down with keyboard is automaticly applying a colour fill.
Hi,
My InDesign is strangely applying a colour fill when i move an objects up or down using the directional arrow in my keyboard. If the colour pallet is open. Nudging an object up makes the pallet disappear on the first press. It then reappears on the second press while filling the object (text frame) with black. This is instensly frustrating. How can I stop this? Suggestions would be very appreciated.
I have already reset the preferences.
Cheers,Thanks for your reply.
I fixed the problem by replacing the keyboard!
Cheers,
Nick Meadows
0421 976 704
www.nickmeadows.com
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:01:22 -0600
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Moving selected objects up and down with keyboard is automaticly applying a colour fill.
Re: Moving selected objects up and down with keyboard is automaticly applying a colour fill.
created by Peter Spier in InDesign - View the full discussion
I have to ask if you reset the prefs uing one of the methods in this thread: Replace Your Preferences If not, there's a good chance you left out one of the files, so please try again using one of the listed methods. And please tell us the OS and your version of ID, including the patch level. Obviously this is not normal behavior. It sounds as if the Swatches panel has focus when you are pressing the arrow keys.
Replies to this message go to everyone subscribed to this thread, not directly to the person who posted the message. To post a reply, either reply to this email or visit the message page: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4302200#4302200
To unsubscribe from this thread, please visit the message page at http://forums.adobe.com/message/4302200#4302200. In the Actions box on the right, click the Stop Email Notifications link.
Start a new discussion in InDesign by email or at Adobe Forums
For more information about maintaining your forum email notifications please go to http://forums.adobe.com/message/2936746#2936746. -
Powershell - Select-Object -Unique vs Group-Object
Hi,
I have the following problem with powershell.
I have a list of strings call it $machine_list which
I know there are duplicates.
The following code produces the following output:
$machine_list.count -- 15375
$a = $machine_list | Select-Object -Unique
$a.Count -- 12134
$b = $machine_list | Group-Object -NoElement
$b.Count -- 12082
I am trying to get a unique list and looking at different
ways of doing it.
So in my example above why are the counts different?
Should they not be the same - $a.Count -eq $b.Count?
I am hoping somebody can explain this in more detail to me.
Also is there a way I can compare the results to see how they
differ? (Comparing $a with the Name Values of $b).
Thanks,
Ward.Dirk - another way to think this out. "group" means that each named group has a unique name. In a list of strings the group name and object are identical so the list of group names is the list of identical strings.
Select -unique and sort -unique produce an identical set of lists. Select -unique, however, does not necessarily produce a sorted output although the output is guaranteed to be unique. What you may be mixing up is that many learned to add sort
in PowerShell V1 because they did not get a sorted output from a unique operation. As I posted above, this issue has come up constantly as people start to learn databases. A company that I used to work for wrote its own 'uniquing' code. It
always produced a sorted output as a byproduct of the method. When we implemented SQL database technology the programmers could not understand why select unique in SQL did not produce a sorted output. They constantly complained that it was a bug.
In most cases we would like a uniquing operation or not sort the results. Suppose I have a result set order a specific way. Now I want group it on a column but I do not want the order of the records changed. Grouping and select unique should
not change the order. There are many discussions in the database field as to why this needs to be. I am not sure which set of standards PS follows. In PS1 it appeared to follow the industry standard. Maybe I will test it later.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -
Hello everyone,
Yesterday (April 30, 2015) SAP released the new patch 500 for SAP KERNEL 7.21 EXT 64-bit.
I am using Download Manager and I was able to download the Kernel Part II (DB-Dependent) .SAR file and other files as you can see in the screenshot, but for the Kernel Part I and disp+work files I get the error: "You are not authorized to download selected object".
On the other hand, I am able to download older versions of the Kernel Part I (SAPEXE_XXX.SAR).
Is this a technical problem on SAP side (SMP)? Did anyone encounter the same issue and found a solution?
Thanks.
BR,
MichelHello Michel,
Kernel Patch 500 is yet to release, to the customer.
Have a look at the below blog.
Surprise for Kernel version 7.21 patch level 500 !
Hope the above one helps.
regards,
pavan -
I'm having problems Sorting Objects
Hello everyone!
I'm having problems sorting objects. Here is what I got at moment... I'm trying using "Collections.sort" with objects, and I think my problem is there but I don't know how to do in other way the sorting.
Some help will be appreciated! Thank you!
Movie.java
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class Movie
public int itemNum;
private String title;
public String director;
public Movie()
itemNum = -1;
title = "";
director = "";
public Movie(int itemNum, String title, String director)
this.itemNum = itemNum;
this.title = title;
this.director = director;
public int getItemNum()
return itemNum;
public String getTitle()
return title;
public String getDirector()
return director;
public void setItemNum(int a)
itemNum = a;
public void setTitle(String b)
title = b;
public void setDirector(String c)
director = c;
public String toString()
String MovieInfo = title + "\t" + itemNum + "\t" + director ;
return MovieInfo;
}MovieCollection.java
import java.util.*;
public class MovieCollection
private ArrayList Movies;
public MovieCollection()
Movies = new ArrayList();
public ArrayList getMovies()
return Movies;
public void add(Movie aMovie)
Movies.add(aMovie);
}MovieCollectionMenu.java
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
public class MovieCollectionMenu
private MovieCollection model;
public MovieCollectionMenu ()
model = new MovieCollection();
public MovieCollection getModel()
return model;
private static Scanner Insert = new Scanner(System.in);
public static void main (String[] args)
MovieCollectionMenu menu = new MovieCollectionMenu();
while(true)
System.out.println("Movies Menu");
System.out.println("");
System.out.println("1 - Add Movie");
System.out.println("2 - List Movies");
System.out.println("3 - Sort Movies");
System.out.println("0 - Exit");
System.out.print("\nSelect your option: ");
int option = Insert.nextInt();
switch(option)
case 0: System.exit(0);break;
case 1: menu.addMovie(); break;
case 2: menu.listMovies(); break;
case 3: menu.sortMovie(); break;
default: System.out.println("Invalid Selection!");
System.out.println("\n");
private void addMovie()
Movie aMovie = new Movie();
System.out.print("\nEnter movie name: ");
aMovie.setTitle(Insert.next());
System.out.print("Enter number of copies: ");
aMovie.setItemNum(Insert.nextInt());
System.out.print("Enter director name: ");
aMovie.setDirector(Insert.next());
model.add(aMovie);
private void listMovies()
ArrayList Movies = model.getMovies();
for (int i=0; i<Movies.size(); i++)
System.out.println(Movies.get(i).toString());
private void sortMovie()
ArrayList Movies = model.getMovies();
Collections.sort(Movies);
}JBStonehenge, Melanie_Green, paulcw thank u so much for ur support!!!!
I did many changes in my code, and I think in a simple way... I can sort the strings, but I'm having problems to sort the integers from the array I created..
I read a lot of sorting and this was the best I could do, please can you change my code to sort the integers?
Thank u people!
Here it is my code:
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
public class MyMovies {
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyMovies Movies = new MyMovies();
Movies.runEverything();
private static final int MAX_SIZE = 100;
private static int numberOfMovies = 0;
private static Movie[] array = new Movie[MAX_SIZE];
public void runEverything(){
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
while (true) {
Menu();
int option;
try {
option = Integer.parseInt(input.nextLine());
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
System.out.println("You must enter a number!");
continue;
switch (option) {
case 1:
addMovie(input);
System.out.println("\nThis movie was added:");
printMovie(numberOfMovies - 1);
break;
case 2:
sortMoviesByTitle();
break;
case 3:
sortMoviesByYear();
break;
case 4:
sortMoviesByDirector();
break;
case 5:
printAllMovies();
break;
case 6:
System.out.println("You logout with success!");
input.close();
System.exit(0);
break;
default:
System.out.println("You entered a wrong option! Please try again.");
break;
private static void Menu() {
System.out.println("\n1 - Add a movie");
System.out.println("2 - Sort movies by name");
System.out.println("3 - Sort movies by year");
System.out.println("4 - Sort movies by director");
System.out.println("5 - Display movies");
System.out.println("6 - Quit");
System.out.print("\nPlease enter an option:");
private static void printMovie(int i) {
if (i < numberOfMovies) {
System.out.println("\"" + array.getTitle() + "\", " + array[i].getYear() + ", \"" + array[i].getDirector() + "\"");
private void printAllMovies() {
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfMovies; i++) {
System.out.print(String.valueOf(i+1) + "-");
printMovie(i);
private static void addMovie(Scanner input) {
System.out.print("Enter movie:");
String title = input.nextLine();
int year = 0;
while (true) {
try {
System.out.print("Enter the year of movie:");
year = Integer.parseInt(input.nextLine());
break;
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
System.out.println("You must enter an integer!");
continue;
System.out.print("Please enter the director:");
String director = input.nextLine();
array[numberOfMovies] = new Movie(title, year, director);
numberOfMovies++;
private void sortMoviesByTitle(){
boolean swapped = true;
int i = 0;
String tempTitle, tempDirector;
int tempYear;
while (swapped) {
swapped = false;
i++;
for (int j = 0; j < numberOfMovies - i; j++) {
if ( array[j].getTitle().compareToIgnoreCase(array[j + 1].getTitle()) > 0) {
tempTitle = array[j].getTitle();
tempYear = array[j].getYear();
tempDirector = array[j].getDirector();
array[j].setTitle(array[j + 1].getTitle());
array[j].setYear(array[j + 1].getYear());
array[j].setDirector(array[j + 1].getDirector());
array[j + 1].setTitle(tempTitle);
array[j + 1].setYear(tempYear);
array[j + 1].setDirector(tempDirector);
swapped = true;
System.out.println("The movies are sorted by title.");
private void sortMoviesByYear(){
boolean swapped = true;
int i = 0;
String tempTitle, tempDirector;
int tempYear;
while (swapped) {
swapped = false;
i++;
for (int j = 0; j < numberOfMovies - i; j++) {
if ( array[j].getYear().compareToIgnoreCase(array[j + 1].getYear()) > 0) {
tempTitle = array[j].getTitle();
tempYear = array[j].getYear();
tempDirector = array[j].getDirector();
array[j].setTitle(array[j + 1].getTitle());
array[j].setYear(array[j + 1].getYear());
array[j].setDirector(array[j + 1].getDirector());
array[j + 1].setTitle(tempTitle);
array[j + 1].setYear(tempYear);
array[j + 1].setDirector(tempDirector);
swapped = true;
System.out.println("The movies are sorted by year.");
private void sortMoviesByDirector(){
boolean swapped = true;
int i = 0;
String tempTitle, tempDirector;
int tempYear;
while (swapped) {
swapped = false;
i++;
for (int j = 0; j < numberOfMovies - i; j++) {
if ( array[j].getDirector().compareToIgnoreCase(array[j + 1].getDirector()) > 0) {
tempTitle = array[j].getTitle();
tempYear = array[j].getYear();
tempDirector = array[j].getDirector();
array[j].setTitle(array[j + 1].getTitle());
array[j].setYear(array[j + 1].getYear());
array[j].setDirector(array[j + 1].getDirector());
array[j + 1].setTitle(tempTitle);
array[j + 1].setYear(tempYear);
array[j + 1].setDirector(tempDirector);
swapped = true;
System.out.println("The movies are sorted by director.");
/* ----- My Movie Class ----- */
class Movie {
private String title;
private int year;
private String director;
public Movie(String title, int year, String director) {
setTitle(title);
setYear(year);
setDirector(director);
public String getTitle() {
return title;
public void setTitle(String title) {
this.title = title;
public int getYear() {
return year;
public void setYear(int year) {
this.year = year;
public String getDirector() {
return director;
public void setDirector(String director) {
this.director = director;
}Edited by: AntiSignIn on Mar 24, 2010 7:30 PM
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