Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - It’s Easy Having Your Own Personal Views

 
 

I'm working on a complex design with objects in several Layers including a small area of type. The bottom Layer contains a scan of a hand-drawn rough layout of the design to be used as a Template. By double-clicking on the Layer listing, I can access the Options window to make it a Locked Template that's Dimmed to 50%. In working on this design, I find myself turning off and on my bottom Layer to "preview" my work without the Template. I also have to keep zooming into the small type area with the Zoom tool (Z) to format and edit the text. Is there a way to save different Views of my document with the visibility of various Layers turned on or off at different magnification percentages? Because of a little known feature call Custom Views, the answer is YES! To try it, set up a couple of new Layers in a document by selecting New Layer under the Options menu of the Layers panel (Window>Layers). Draw several objects in each Layer. Turn off the bottom Layer visibility by clicking its Eye icon. To save a Custom View, go to View>New View, name it and click OK. This View is saved at the bottom of the View menu. Make your bottom Layer visible again by clicking its visibility box in the Layers panel and save a second Custom View. Now marquee across a small part of your design with the Zoom tool and save a close up Custom View. When you select each one of your Custom Views, you'll see exactly what you want on your screen instantly with no manual turning on or off of Layers or Zooming with the Zoom tool. But best of all, you can assign keyboard commands to apply each of these Views (up to ten) under the Edit menu>Keyboard Shortcuts.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Why Is "Merge Layers" Not Available?

 
 

In discussing the Layers panel in an advanced Illustrator class, one student posed an excellent question. "Why is 'Merge Layers' always grayed out in the Options menu of the Layers panel? How can I combine Layers if I can't access the command?," he asked. "Merge Layers is only available when you actually select multiple Layer listings in the panel," I answered. He jumped in, "But I targeted all the objects in three different Layers by clicking the hollow circle to the far right of each Layer listing." I answered, "Ah, but you didn't select the Layer listings, just the objects in those Layers. Click on the first Layer listing, then Command-click (Control-click with PC) on the other Layers that you'd like to Merge. If you look under the Options menu of the panel and select 'Merge Layers' (which is no longer grayed out), all Layers combine into the last Layer selected, which is marked with a small black triangle to the far right of the listing."