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Design Illustrator Foundations Creating an Icon Understanding Shapes

Tommy Gebru
Tommy Gebru
30,164 Points

Unable to toggle between Fill & Stroke in Adobe Illustrator CC

In the video, "Understanding Shapes" I am unable to use the

shortcut "Shift X" to toggle between Fill & Stroke preferences for

a selected object the smallest circles on the moon icon.

This does not work I have to double click the center of the

object. Which forces Adobe Illustrator to enter something called

Isolation Mode which focuses solely on the object layer and

when I believe I have made the necessary changes as I follow the

video (Switching the fill and stroke on three small circles on the

moon icon). The end result is that isolation mode vanishes and

returns to Illustrators original state with no changes to the Moon

Icon!

Someone please help its been a long day...thx

3 Answers

Patrick Cooney
Patrick Cooney
12,216 Points

I'll be perfectly honest, in my 12+ years of using Illustrator I've never experienced this. That said, I had a hunch and it seemed to recreate your problem when I tested it so maybe it's why you're having an issue. Do you have multiple objects with different stroke and fill properties selected? If you select the objects you have been does either the fill or the stroke show as a box with a fill the color of the GUI and a big question mark? If so that's probably your issue. If not, I have no idea. I've never experienced that particular issue before.

Tommy Gebru
Tommy Gebru
30,164 Points

Thanks for the quick response Patrick , I have linked screenshots as a visual aid to better find a solution.

The first screenshot shows Illustrator in its state before I toggle between Fill and Stroke

Imgur

The second screenshot shows illustrator in after I have toggled between Fill & Stroke and I have dropped down on the layers panel to better show you the changes that occur.

Imgur

Lastly this screenshot shows illustrator after I have double clicked on the object because I believe it had not been properly selected. Thus entering Isolation Mode. And when I exit no changes have been made!

Imgur

Interesting. I'm using CC 2014. When I select something with the Selection Tool, I get a bounding box and can see the shape of the circle in red (which matches the layer color). On your screenshots, I don't see any selection showing, except in the layers, where you can see a small red square, which indicates that you have that one part (one of the smaller circles?) of the layer selected.

But something else I noticed.... the "eye" on the main (top level) of the layer isn't looking like the rest of the layer eyes.... it's just an outline, rather than the "eye" (look at the individual parts of that layer when the layer is toggled open)... that is how your top level "eye" should look.

And I think I figured it out possibly (I'm obviously thinking through this as I type). I remember accidentally turning on some mode which made everything look like wires (1px lines, no fills, nothing). And I haven't used that for a long time, but... I think you accidentally turned on "Outline" mode. To turn it back off, go to "View" and it should be the very top option. When I toggled that option on, my file looked exactly like yours does, with just wires, and the circles having tiny "x" in the middle.

Let me know if that isn't it.

Oh and if that's it, and you have it on, it will say "Preview" instead of "Outline" at the top of the view menu. Preview lets you see the items on the page with "all the things" (strokes, fills, etc.).