Cannot expand, i.e. nothing happens when I do

[Karen Jung]

Hi 

this is an awesome tool, but I can't get it to work. :-(

I can create the pattern, but I cannot expand it. I watched Helen's YouTube tutorial on the subject (several times) and followed all the steps, but still, when I expand nothing happens ("expand appearance" is not available). Could somebody tell me what I could be doing wrong? I've been using Photoshop for many years, but I'm pretty new to Illustrator. I use CC2019.

Helen's tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=zkshVpNkgm8

Thanky you!

[Helen Bradley]

Hi there

The solution is to go back and use Illustrator CC 2018 - Adobe broke the Expand Appearance option in Illustrator CC 2019. 
Here is Adobe's reply to my question in relation to this: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2586401 which acknowledges the issue.

They also posit a workaround which you might try as an alternative. 

cheers

Helen

[Karen Jung]

Hi Helen, 

thank you for sharing the link. I tried the alternative Adobe offers and it worked. :-)

Cheers,
Karen

[Helen Bradley]

I’m so glad that the link worked. I haven’t tried it yet but I need to do so - so I’m glad that it worked for you. I’m also glad that we have a solution for working with the MadPattern templates as they’re just such an awesome tool. It would be sad to see Adobe building problems into Illustrator that meant that they didn’t work.
Cheers
Helen