Expert: Amy - 8/31/2004

Question
Hi Amy,

I'm hoping you can help me with an Illustrator 10.0.3 question.
I recently upgraded my Mac from a G4 to a G5. I reinstalled Illustrator 10 and now my "Swatch Libraries" don't show up. When I go to "window" and pull down to  "swatch library" there is nothing to choose from, as though there are no swatch folders in the pre-sets folder.

I went to the Adobe website and upgraded to 10.0.3, but no luck. I reinstalled Illustrator once again and the same thing happened. I have double-checked the pre-sets folder and all of my color swatches are where they're supposed to be. If I click directly on, say, Pantone solid coated "  an illustrator page opens with all of the Pantone colors, so the info is in there. It just isn't showing up in my files.

If I open an old file that already has Pantone colors in it, the ones I was working with are there, but I can't get to any new ones.

My "brush", "symbol" and "style" libraries all show up just as they're supposed to.

I've been working in Illustrator for something like 14 years and have never encountered this problem.
Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Peter

Answer
Hi Peter,

I'd downgrade back to the G4.  Just KIDDING.

Sounds like you and I have been using Illustrator for about the same length of time.  And now it's turned on you.

Of course, you've tried quitting AI, trashing the aiprefs file, and launching AI.  That probably did nothing. You are not alone in experiencing this.  Here's what I've found as far as suggestions.

1. Corrupt fonts can cause the swatch libraries to vanish.
  a. With no apps running, find all instances of AdobeFnt.lst files on your machine and throw them away, they will be re-created.

  b. Use your font manager (ATM) to verify all of your fonts or, better yet,

  c. Remove all but your core fonts from active status, then slowly add them back.  Maybe you can try reducing their numbers at the same time, putting some in reserve groups.

2. Here's a common culprit - there's an extension or a Control Panel that's freaking AI out.  Try starting with your base MacOS extensions/CPs and nothing more.  Or if you happen to remember an extension being recently added/activated to your OS, just turn that one off.  Chances are, with that upgrade to the G5, you have a lot of new ones right now.

3. And this is a most interesting theory I found for you:
-----------> not my theory, by the way.
You are launching AI 10 from what you think is an alias of the application, but in fact it is a copy of the application made by accident while intending to make an alias.

Making a copy of the application broke the links to the folder it has to reside in in order to load many filters and tools.

Trash the copy and its aiprefs file; you must do both. If you don't trash the preferences as well it won't correct the problem.


4. You could also try rebuilding your Mac's desktop and your finder could be corrupt. When that happens, applications have trouble finding their components. Trash the following preferences: Finder prefs, Find File prefs, Mac OS prefs

Peter, the suggestions I've made that are the probable causes are going to take some time to test. I would work around it for now by loading the swatch library manually, using the Window>Swatch Library>Other Library command. Hopefully, you can do that?????

Let me know
Amy Pace