Design

Illustrator CS4 Selection Tool Won’t Scale

Whenever I get stuck with a CS4 issue, I do what any smart, tech-savvy, genius-type person would do…I Google. If you’re trying to find the answer to this issue: “Illustrator CS4 Selection Tool Won’t Scale”, you’re going to get a lot of results…but if you’re having the problem I was having, all of those results will be WRONG.

Feedback indicates this fix also works for newer version of Illustrator (CS5, CS5.5 and CS6).

Issue:

When you are using the Selection Tool in Illustrator CS4, you cannot scale objects. You can move them but you cannot re-size or rotate them.

Recommended Solution:

View >> Show Bounding Box

Still not working? My problem too.

Actual Solution:

Save your AI projects and close the program. Re-launch the program and immediately hold “SHIFT + CTRL + ALT”, continue holding until AI opens. This will reset your AI preferences…PROBLEM SOLVED!

{ 68 Comments }

  1. Fatima

    Thanks a lot!!!!

  2. bhagath

    thank you, i was just stoped working, because of bounding box. thankyou soooooooo much.

  3. SavedMyLife

    THANK YOU!!

  4. Waterchickie

    Thanks! The show bounding box worked for me! I knew I had fiddled around with the speed keys and accidentally changed something. In the meantime, I just went to the scale option until I discovered your solution. Thank you very much! You saved me such a headache.

  5. Jennifer A

    I have tried your ‘Actual Solution’ and lost all my window options and tool palattes, Mmm – that does not work. My selection tool was scaling everything with no problems. I made alts and undid them and then this started. Desperately need to scale, any other options you may have please?
    Jen

    • Hey Jen,

      I’m sorry it didn’t work for you! And yes, I do remember now, that holding those keys is actually “resetting” your AI preferences…it does change everything back to default. Did you try the first solution, “show bounding box, or shift+ctrl b”?

      The last (and most tedious) solution would be to uninstall and then reinstall Illustrator. Hopefully you have the discs…it shouldn’t take too long. That was going to be my next step, but the preference reset ended up working for me.

      Good luck! I know these bugs are soooooooooooooo frustrating!

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