Expert: Amy - 8/15/2007

Question
I have done everything short of re-installing adobe illustrator, mainly because, I
can't find the hard disk. I try to copy and paste an image into a new document, it
immediately crashes, I try to open my pathfinders pallette and it crashes. I have
deleted my preferences and fixed all fonts on my system. Are there any other  
recommendations?

Answer
Sara -

Are you on a Mac, I'm guessing? It's been called an Apple-side bug.

To fix this issue, launch Illustrator. Hide the "Appearances palette." Quit Illustrator. Relaunch Illustrator. You can then bring the appearances palette up as you need it, the idea is to launch Illustrator with it hidden, so hide it before quitting Illustrator each time. This bug fix is found in the Adobe Forums in this thread:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.3bc1d732/0
THe solution works for some and not for others. It was contributed by a person named Chelan.

Now that was in regards to the Pathfinder crash.

The copy/paste issue could be a few things. It could be related to that same issue. It could be a finder issue with your mac. It could be a problem with the application or the data you are pasting from.

Are you copying/pasting images from PhotoShop directly into Illustrator? Probably best to avoid that and place them using File > Place.

But that's not supposed to be the case. Try an old fix for that problem... go to AI Preferences>File Handling & Clipboard and check both Copy As: PDF and AICB.

Maybe this will be the trick?
Good luck!
Amy