Illustrator® CS4 For Dummies®

Chapter 19. Ten (Or So) Ways to Customize Illustrator

In This Chapter

• Telling panels where to go

• Setting up custom keyboard shortcuts

• Getting easier access to tools

• Changing the start-up documents

• Tweaking the default settings

• Editing preferences

• Creating Actions

Keyboard commands are great shortcuts — you gotta love 'em, finger cramps and all — but what if you could make them easier to use? Or maybe you have some styles that you use all the time and you want them to be (gasp) available all the time. And how about that quirky default page size that each new document shows up wearing? Well, if you itch to tinker, adjust, and fine-tune (but you misplaced your ball-peen hammer), you came to the right place. This chapter shows you how to adjust, redefine, and yes, customize the way Illustrator works for you.

Warning

Before you go on a feature-tweaking rampage, consider this: You're changing how Illustrator works globally. So a word to the wise: Read first. Then, if you like what you see, make a change and try it out for a while before you change anything else. Return to default settings if you make a mistake.

Positioning Panels

Illustrator saves all panel positions just as they were when you quit Illustrator. The next time you use Illustrator, the panels appear right where you left them. This structure is handy most of the time, but your panels can get a bit disorganized if you move them all over ...