Working with Panels in Adobe Illustrator CS4
- The Illustrator panel icons
- The Tools panel
- The Control panel
- The other panels illustrated
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
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This chapter will help you become more intimately acquainted with the Illustrator interface features that you will be using continually as you work: the panels. In the preceding chapter, you learned how to arrange them onscreen. Here, you will see what the individual panels look like and be introduced to the specific function of each one—from choosing color swatches (Swatches panel) to styling type (Character and Paragraph panels, among others), to editing layers (the Layers panel). Note: In-depth instructions for using specific panels are amply provided throughout this book.
You can read through this chapter with or without glancing at or fiddling with the panels onscreen, and then use it as a reference guide as you work. The panel icons are shown on the next page to help you identify them quickly. After that, you’ll find instructions for using the Tools panel and a brief description of each tool, an introduction to the Control panel, then information about the other panels, in alphabetical order.
Choosing Values in Panels and Dialogs
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- To change a value incrementally, click in a field in a panel or dialog, then press the up or down arrow key.
- To access a pop-up slider in a panel or dialog (e.g., to choose an Opacity percentage from the Control panel), click the arrowhead. To close a slider, click anywhere outside it or press Enter/Return. If you click an arrowhead to open a slider, then change your mind, you can press Esc to close it and restore the last chosen setting.
- You can change numerical values in some panels and dialogs quickly by using a scrubby slider: Drag slightly to the left or right over the option name or icon. Examples include controls on the Character and Paragraph panels and settings in the Effect Gallery.
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The Illustrator panel icons
Identifying the panel icons
Each panel in Photoshop has a unique icon.A Try to memorize the icons—at least the ones for the panels you use most often—so you’ll be able to identify and access them quickly as you work.
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Using the Context Menus
When you right-click/Control-click in the document window—depending on where you click and which tool happens to be selected—a menu of context-sensitive commands pops up onscreen. Many panel thumbnails, names, and features also have related context menus. If a command is available on a context menu (or can be executed quickly via a keyboard shortcut), we’ll let you know, to spare you from having to trudge to the main menu bar.
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This is the context menu for a selected object.