Adobe Fireworks CS3 strange Hand pointer Tool error
12 Nov 2008
The hand or pointer cursor gets selected and the user cannot select any other tool. It is a very weird problem with Fireworks versions (Macromedia 8, Adobe CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5).
It has happened in my laptop running Windows XP Professional SP3 first with Fireworks CS3, then opened Fireworks 8 and still the same, also happened in a Mac OSX with Fireworks CS5. Other people have also experienced this issue, here you can find an open thread in Adobe forums talking about this same error and another one in Layers Magazine, similar but with Adobe Illustrator CS2.
The solution is to select the tool and press the Spacebar key (thanks Angela). If that doesn’t work, minimize and maximize the window or try pressing Alt key and clicking on a tool, then with Shift key and press some tools, then minimize and maximize again. You can also try restarting the computer or the application but you should not delete your preferences since it seems not to work.
If the suggested solutions don’t work and you still get the bug, try selecting the Text tool (T shortcut key) and create a text box. Thanks Olaf for this solution :-)
Vista users: Another solution if the hand keeps coming up is to try to minimize Fireworks and then go to another application such as Firefox. Thanks John!
Vista users: Go to File > Preview in Browser > Preview in firefox.exe. Thanks Mike!
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Comments
30 comments to Adobe Fireworks CS3 strange Hand pointer Tool error
Wow, good suggestion. I did the minimize/maximize trick, and viola!
This has been plaguing me for the last few months, in both Fireworks 8 and Photoshop CS. WTF? Never had the problem before. Guess some software patch (OS, driver, or application) “fixed” something, and broke something else.
Thanks!
November 30th, 2008 at 11:25 pmHello, I have the same problem and I think I was able to turn it back to normal when I press the space bar since it’s the shortcut key of the hand tool.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:11 amhi! i was just about to throw the laptop outside the window when i read your suggestion. thanks!
December 31st, 2008 at 4:19 pmThanks too !
January 11th, 2009 at 1:11 pm10x
January 16th, 2009 at 2:05 pmWow, thanks a lot for sharing this information. I had my axe sharpened and was going to do something stupid, when a thought struck me: “Ask auntie Google when in times of trouble” and she did not disappoint me :)
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 pmxoxoxoxoxox
April 28th, 2009 at 6:24 amThank you.
April 29th, 2009 at 12:11 amI got the error again and this time it did not fix it self with the minimize/maximize trick, but I found this post on the adobe forum, which says that you should use the text tool (T) and that worked.
http://forums.adobe.com/message/1277696#1277696
April 29th, 2009 at 2:53 amHooray!
May 9th, 2009 at 7:30 pmThe hand error appeared again and I created a text box and it solved the problem.
Thank you Olaf!
THANK YOU! The text tool did the trick for me. This has been bugging me for ages! Thank you
May 24th, 2009 at 12:31 pmI’m running Fireworks CS3 on Vista. I found that simply minimizing the window doesn’t work, but going into another application (such as Firefox) fixes it. Quite strange.
May 30th, 2009 at 11:08 pmMaybe that works too for XP users, when the error happens again I’ll try.
May 31st, 2009 at 1:58 amPost updated. Thank you John! :-)
I am using Vista and this has happened to me several times. Usually minimize/maximize got it to work again, but not today. I tried everything listed here and nothing go it to work.
So I played around with some other things and I found another solution.
Go to File > Preview in Browser > Preview in firefox.exe
That did the trick :)
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 pmThank you Mike! I’ll add it to the list
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:44 pmI just choose the tool and press spacebar, works everytime. :D
July 17th, 2009 at 7:17 amspacebar guy = LEGEND. Thank you so much.
August 5th, 2009 at 4:18 amTHANKS for the solution: “selecting the Text tool (T shortcut key)”
It works!!! :)
August 14th, 2009 at 9:07 amThis problem still exists in Fireworks CS4. I had this problem for an hour. I closed the program and re-started it, but nothing happened. And then all of a sudden when I changed screen from Fireworks to Firefox, it started working again. Very strange.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:19 pmHey, sometimes happens that this tool activates single and we must to minimize and maximize the fw,
September 8th, 2009 at 11:09 ambut is actually a tool that blocks the canvas to avoid disappointment, I think that is good. Regards!
Oh, thank you, thank you for the solution! It’s so easy and unlogical, but it’s working :)
October 25th, 2009 at 3:16 pmThe windows minimize-maximize works perfect thanks for the tip
October 26th, 2009 at 9:57 pmThank you, I was going crazy.
November 15th, 2009 at 7:01 amThank You!! it saved me a whole hour at the very least
March 15th, 2010 at 5:27 pmThanks for this info, help me a lot!!! XD
April 17th, 2010 at 8:39 pmIv had my photoshop stuck like this for weeks, no matter how many times i rebooted the computer nothing changed. Pressing the ALT key and clicking on a tool did the trick! Thank You!xxx
May 13th, 2010 at 10:33 pmThanks so much… saved me a lot of stress…
May 18th, 2010 at 8:13 pmCS4 on WinXP confirmed. Minimizing and then maximizing the window makes it go away.
May 21st, 2010 at 7:07 amthanks man
June 12th, 2010 at 7:21 pmspacebar guy = LEGEND. Thank you so much
November 4th, 2011 at 1:55 pm