Illustrator Tip #11…

– taterboy | June 18th, 2008

Filed under: Design, Digital Art, Illustrator, Tips

…and The Most Important:
Learn as many keyboard shortcuts you can. This is not an illustrator only tip. As with any app that you work in and expect to be proficient at, you should learn the key-board short cuts. In the manuals that come with the box, there is normally shortcut charts. If you did the download, you can find them online. Most Adobe apps have the ability to re-assign key-board short cuts as well. I would suggest against it, unless it is necessary, because if you ever go to work at a different location, or have to show someone something on a different computer, it helps if the shortcuts are the same. Some reasons we have had to change shortcuts in the past are, In Illustrator CS2 and previous, The shortcut for switching between the hollow and solid arrow selection tools, was Command + Tab (Ctrl + Tab on PC). On a mac, all the way back to OS 8, would instead toggle the application switcher. So instead of getting the hollow arrow selection tool, you would get a web browser or other open app instead.

In Photoshop CS2 and before, Command + Option + D (Ctrl + Alt + D on PC)was the short – cut for Feather Selection. On a Mac since the introduction on the dock, that shortcut was used to toggle the dock to appear and disappear. Both of these shortcuts were easily fixed by customizing the shortcuts to require and extra Key. That way Command + Option + Tab to toggle the selection Arrows in Illustrator and Command + Option + Shift + D to get the Feather section dialog box.

I believe Illustrator CS3 now comes pre-modified? (I seriously can not remember if I had to change that or not and I can not find any documentation on the Toggle Selection Arrow short cut as it this post). But Photoshop CS3 has done away with the Feather Selection dialog box and replaced it with Refine Edge which is Command + Option + R (Ctrl + Alt + R on PC).

Here is a resource for keyboard shortcuts. They are not complete, but in a easier format to print.
http://www.keyxl.com/
Also for Photoshop Only Shortcuts :
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/keyboard-shortcuts.html

Flash:
http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_12105

Official Adobe help docs:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/13.0/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-642a.html

http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/10.0/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-76b9.html

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/UsingFlash/WS4B6E7EC1-81C9-4d9d-96C0-9C01EB96E1FA.html

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