- Everyone knows I love an old fashioned trip
down the artistic rabbit hole, and we've had a few.
But let's face it, at the end of the day,
you have work to do.
And as much fun as chasing that beautiful bunny may
be, every once in a while, you have
to take a step back and say, enough rabbit, enough.
Which is why I dedicate this chapter
less to the joy of creating awesome stuff
in Illustrator, and more to the joy
of how you can spend less time doing it.
Because the more streamlined you
are with the tools, the more time you have left
to contemplate the artwork itself.
To this end, we'll be examining two
of Illustrator's foremost efficiency
features, Libraries and Actions.
At its most basic level, the Libraries panel
lets you upload any object or group,
or layer, or group of layers to the Creative Cloud.
After that, you can recall the graphic
any old time you'd like, directly inside Illustrator,
you can bring it into another program
such as Photoshop or InDesign, or you
can share it as an asset with a coworker or client.
That's allowing them to either view your library
or directly edit its contents.
Meaning that you can use the Libraries panel
to collaborate with anyone anywhere,
so long as they have an internet connection
and a Creative Cloud account.
Next, we have Actions, which are Illustrator's
most essential form of automation.
Simply put, an Action is a recorded sequence
of events that you can play back with a single click.
Record an action, test to make sure it works,
and it may serve you well for years to come,
even from one version of Illustrator to the next.
Libraries allow you to expedite the creation
and development of your graphic elements
and designs, Actions allow you
to replay commonly-performed tasks.
together, they promise to make your life
a heck of a lot easier.
And to think, the only action you have
to take is to sit back and watch the next movie.