Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Your Creative Workspace
Your Creative Workspace
INTRODUCTION
OK, this might not seem like sexy WOW! stuff, but to save time and stay focused on being
creative, you need to work efficiently. In this chapter you'll find tons of things you might
have missed or overlooked. You'll find tips for customizing your workspace and in-depth
coverage of newer organizational features such as working with multiple artboards and the
multi-functional Appearance panel, which can take the place of several panels.
Tabbed docs & the App Frame
• Change whether documents are tabbed (the default) or not through Preferences> User Interface.
• If more documents are open than are visible on tabs, a double-arrow at the tab bar's right will list them.
• Drag documents away from the tab to make them free-floating.
• Drag an object from one document into another by dragging over that document's tab. The tab will
spring open to let you drop the object in place.
• On a Mac, you can also turn on the Application Frame (disabled by default) from the Window menu.
The frame contains all the panels and documents, and everything you can do in AI takes place within
the frame.
Note: You should turn off the Application Frame when using an extended monitor setup (or during video projec-
tion).
ORGANIZING YOUR WORKSPACE
You can save time and frustration if you spend a few minutes choosing your user interface
Brightness level, setting up custom workspaces, and creating your own document profiles.
The panels you want handy in order to create a bristle brush painting are probably different
from what you need when creating a technical illustration or the layout for a series of
brochures. Not all panels are needed for every job, but by organizing all that you definitely
need—eliminating all you'll rarely need or won't need at all—you'll be able to locate
quickly just what you need when you need it. In addition, the Control and Appearance
panels often contain the same information found in the special-purpose panels, permitting
you to close some of those panels and streamline your interface even more than you might
think possible (see the “ Using the Appearance panel section later in this chapter).
In deciding which panels you want on your desktop for any given project, you'll probably
first want to cluster panels that you will frequently use in sequence, such as Paragraph and
Character Styles or Transform and Align. You'll also decide where each panel or group of
panels should live, and whether, when you collapse them to get them out of your way, you
want them to collapse to their icon and label, or all the way down to their icon. When you
have everything arranged to your liking, choose New Workspace from either Window>
Workspace, or from the pop-up menu in the Application bar. Once you've created and
saved a custom workspace, its name will show up in the Window> Workspace submenu
and on the Application bar (by default at the top of your working area). Switch workspaces
by choosing its name. Note that any changes to a workspace, such as a panel opened or
moved, are temporarily saved when you quit Illustrator so that Illustrator reopens right
where you left off. To restore a workspace to its original configuration, select the workspace
and choose Reset (workspace name) from the submenu. Following are tips for arranging
your panels:
Search WWH ::




Custom Search