Question
Well, I hope the subject makes some kind of sense. I loaded up Illustrator today, and normally when I click on an object with the black arrow, it converts to free transform automatically. Meaning, one click with the black arrow and you can re-size/distort objects. Now, one click does nothing but selects it, and I have to go down to the free transform tool. This has really slowed down production. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Answer
I get that one quite often actually. Those resizing boxes you like to use are called "bounding boxes" in Illustrator.
If you look under the View menu>Show Bounding Box" command. You probably accidentally performed the key combination (Command+Shift+B) that hides the bounding boxes….
Just turn it back on and you’re good to go.