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Hi guys I was working in CS3 Illustrator a minute ago and I noticed that the shift key has stopped working ie it's not constraining my boxes to proportion when I try to resize them. I tried closing down the programme, trashing the illustrator preferences and restarted it but the same problem persists. It's not a problem with my keyboard as everything seems fine with Photoshop and InDesign.

It's such a pain in the arse as I'm trying to do some design work and it's making it impossible to get things done. I'd be ever so grateful if anyone knows how I would go about resolving this? I am at your mercy. Cheers very much.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by kingmedicine

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Short expert addendum: this problem is usually an Illustrator‑specific interaction, not a bad keyboard. already tried trashing prefs and posted the usual prefs-fix — since that didn’t help here, try the Illustrator-specific checks below before reinstalling.

First check Smart Guides. Smart Guides (and the “Transform Tools” option inside Smart Guides) are a known source of Shift‑constrain glitches: temporarily turn Smart Guides off (View > Smart Guides) and test; if that fixes it, open Preferences → Smart Guides and uncheck “Transform Tools” so you keep helpful guides without the snapping bug. (illustrator.uservoice.com)

If that doesn’t help, look for a background input/security utility. macOS “Secure Keyboard Entry” (enabled by some security apps such as Webroot) can block modifier keys for Adobe apps — pause/quit that software and retest. Also verify the bounding box is visible (View > Show Bounding Box) and reproduce the problem in a brand‑new document with a fresh rectangle (this rules out file-specific oddities). ()

Finally, use Illustrator’s built‑in reset if you haven’t tried the in‑app option (Illustrator > Preferences > General > Reset Preferences) and back up brushes/swatches first. If none of the above fixes it, try a clean macOS user account (to isolate third‑party agents) or reinstall / contact Adobe support. ()

Note: these steps are ordered so you avoid losing custom settings unnecessarily; since prefs were already tried per the thread, focus first on Smart Guides and background apps — they’re the most common causes when Shift works in other Adobe apps but not Illustrator.

Member Avatar for kingmedicine

Hi guys I was working in CS3 Illustrator a minute ago and I noticed that the shift key has stopped working ie it's not constraining my boxes to proportion when I try to resize them. I tried closing down the programme, trashing the illustrator preferences and restarted it but the same problem persists. It's not a problem with my keyboard as everything seems fine with Photoshop and InDesign.

It's such a pain in the arse as I'm trying to do some design work and it's making it impossible to get things done. I'd be ever so grateful if anyone knows how I would go about resolving this? I am at your mercy. Cheers very much.

I just had this same problem and found that if you throw away your illustrator preferences they basically reset and my quick keys work now with my space bar. If on a Mac, go into Library > Preferences > Illustrator Preferences and throw them in the trash. You can reset all of your preferences the way you want them. This seems to be the problem solver for many issues with Adobe Illustrator issues.

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