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- [Deke] I'm gonna start things off



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with a movie that I'm calling,



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Previously on Illustrator

CC 2018, One-on-One.



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The idea being that I wanna

pass along a few highlights



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from the advanced and fundamental courses



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that will help ensure that you



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and I have a common experience.



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Now, when you first launch

the most recent version



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of Illustrator CC, you'll

see the new Properties panel



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taking up an enormous area on screen



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and the decades-old Control panel,



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which normally lives at

the top of the screen,



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altogether absent.



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Now, I documented my displeasure

with this arrangement



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at the beginning of the advanced course,



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but it can be boiled down

to a single sentence.



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The Properties panel is too darn big.



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Notice, if I go up to the Window menu



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and choose the Control command,



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I bring back the horizontal Control panel



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which consumes roughly

one-quarter as much space



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as the Properties panel on screen.



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Now, I'll switch to the Type tool



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which I can get by pressing the T key



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and notice over here in

the Properties panel,



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we have Fill, Stroke, and Opacity.



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Up here in the Control panel,



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we have Fill, Stroke, and

over here we have Opacity.



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In the Properties panel,



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we have a few Character



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and Paragraph-level formatting attributes.



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Up here in the Control panel,

we have even more Character,



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as well as Paragraph-level

formatting attributes.



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Which is why my favorite thing to do



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with the Properties panel

is right-click on its tab



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and choose Close, but it gets even better.



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After a bit of noodling around,



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I put together the one-on-one workspace



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which I've intentionally designed



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to accommodate my small screen.



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The one that you see

me using in my videos,



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as well as the super high

resolution displays included



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with modern laptop computers.



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This workspace also serves

as a good jumping off point



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for large, flat-screen monitors.



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Though, of course, I invite

you to customize your interface



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to suit your specific needs.



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The practical upshot is that

you'll see three panel groups



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over here on the right-hand

side of the screen.



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The top one includes

the Color, Color Guide,



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and Swatches panels.



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The lower one contains

Layers, Appearance, Artboard,



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and Libraries.



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Sandwiched between them,



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we have Stroke, Gradient, and Transparency



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which are mostly collapsed.



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To toggle the state of a panel,



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click this tiny double arrow icon



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or just double-click on its tab.



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To the left of these panels,



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we have this column of

icons which represent panels



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that are collapsed,



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but you can expand any one of them



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at a moment's notice just

by clicking on its icon.



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This first guy brings up the Brushes panel



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about which we'll learn

more in chapter 33.



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Here we have the Pathfinder operations.



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This is the Character panel



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with all your text formatting options.



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Then, we have Info, Navigator, and so on.



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To see how I put this workspace together,



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watch the movie called,



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Customizing Your Panels, Important!



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In chapter three of the

fundamentals course.



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Now, notice that I'm seeing large tabs



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at the top of the panels which

are specifically designed



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to accommodate tablet users.



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In particular, folks who

use Microsoft Surface Pro.



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If you're using a standard

computer, however,



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you can reclaim some screen

space by making the tab smaller.



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By way of demonstration,



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I'll scale the Swatches

panel to the very bottom



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of the grayscale color group

and then I'll press Ctrl + K,



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or Cmd + K on a Mac,



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to bring up the Preferences dialogue box.



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Next, I'll click on User Interface here



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in the left-hand column



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and then I'll turn off

the Large Tabs checkbox.



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Just like that,



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I open up this much

vertical space right there



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at which point I'll go ahead and click OK.



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Now, you might say, well,



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that's not really a big difference,



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but, in fact, it's enough

room to see another layer



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down here in the Layers panel.



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All right, over here on the

left-hand side of the screen,



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we have the vertical

toolbox which often comes up



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in two columns.



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I prefer a single column, however,



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which you can achieve by clicking



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on this little double arrow icon up here



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at the top of the toolbox.



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All right, I'll go ahead

and click on this text



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that I've converted to path

outlines in order to select it



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and now notice this

numerical value up here



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in the Control panel,

in this case Opacity.



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Well, nowadays, you can

adjust any numerical value



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using the scroll wheel on your mouse.



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In this case,



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I'm just hovering over the

value and scrolling down.



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Now, it doesn't have to be

a scroll wheel, by the way,



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it can be any scrolling device



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and you can also press

the Shift key to scroll



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in increments of 10.



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All right, I'll go ahead



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and scroll this guy back up to a 100%.



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Next, notice here in the Document window



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that by default we're

seeing a bounding box



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around the selection.



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The bounding box allows you

to transform a selection



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on-the-fly either by dragging a handle



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or dragging just outside a corner handle.



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I'll go ahead and undo those changes.



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The problem is that you

can't see the anchor points.



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I like to see my anchor points



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and I like to be able

to drag path outlines



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by their anchor points so

that they snap into alignment



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with other paths.



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Which is why I hide the

bounding box by going up



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to the View menu and choosing

the Hide Bounding Box command.



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Notice, now I can see my

anchor points on screen.



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Now, I'm not saying the

bounding box is never useful.



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I find it very helpful when I'm working



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with area text, for example,



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which is why I also find it helpful



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to memorize the commands keyboard shortcut



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which is Ctrl + Shift + B here on the PC.



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That's Cmd + Shift + B on the Mac.



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Pressing Ctrl + Shift or Cmd + Shift + B



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brings back the bounding box.



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Pressing those keys

again makes it go away.



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Also available in the View menu

is the Smart Guides command.



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Now, I'm a big fan of Smart Guides



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which help you precisely align objects,



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but I usually have this command turned off



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and that's because otherwise we get a lot



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of flashing on screen, as

you're seeing right here,



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even around invisible objects

which is no good for video.



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Fortunately, this command

also has a keyboard shortcut,



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albeit an odd one, of Ctrl +

U, that's Cmd + U on the Mac,



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which allows me to hide and

show Smart Guides several times



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in any given session.



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One final thing to know

and this is just an FYI.



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Let's say you're previewing a document



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and for some reason it doesn't look right.



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I'll go ahead and adjust my preview



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so you can see what I mean.



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In my case, the strokes inside

David here are too thick



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and we have a few jagged edges as well.



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Well, one option is to quit Illustrator



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and restart the program,



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and then see if that clears things up.



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Another is to go up to

the View menu once again



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and choose this command right here.



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Depending on the quality

of your graphics card,



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Illustrator by default is going



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to preview your illustrations

with the help of the GPU.



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That is the graphics processing unit.



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If you wanna try the CPU instead,



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then choose this command



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and you will get a

different looking preview.



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In my case, the thin lines

inside David look much better



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and we get smoother edges as well.



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If that's not what you want,



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then return to the View menu and choose



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that command's complement which

is expressed as GPU Preview.



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That's it, you're now

ready to move forward



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with my personal assurance

that throughout the many movies



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to come, my experience and

yours will be the same.