Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 8/21/2008

Question
Hi,

I was working on a file last night and this morning it wont open?! I get a message 'unknown error', which is very helpful as you can imagine. I have tried opening other files which work fine. I have tried placing the file but it crops all the artwork outside of the page.

Any suggestions? I am really stuck and of course the backed up file is well out of date! arg!

Answer
Hi Ed,

Unfortunately, the only advice I can offer is to try and reset Illustrator (hold shift+ctrl+alt/option+cmd/apple when starting up).

The other thing you can try is if this is an AI native file, change the extension manually to PDF and then try opening in Illustrator.  Normally I don't recommend this, but it has worked in the past.

Sometimes things like this are just a hiccup and need a good shake to straighten them out - just don't shake the computer please.

Good luck.

Thanks

Kevin