Working with Palettes

Illustrator s palettes are highly mouse friendly, but you can also perform some actions from the keyboard. Many of the shortcuts for palettes involve pressing one or more keys to modify the mouse action; most don t work (or have different effects) when a Type tool is selected.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Working with All (or Most) Palettes

Windows [Tab], Mac [Tab]

Toggle the display of all palettes

Windows [Shift]-[Tab], Mac [Shift]-[Tab]

Toggle the display of all palettes except the Toolbox

Windows [Shift]-[Enter], Mac [Shift]-[Return]

Apply the value and keep the text box active

Keyboard Shortcuts for Working in the Actions Palette

Windows [Alt]-click the Play button, Mac [Option]-click the Play button

Play a single command

Windows [Ctrl]-double-click the Play button, Mac [ z ]-double-click the Play button

Play the action

Windows [Alt]-click the New Action button, Mac [Option]-click the New Action button

Create a new action without displaying the New Action dialog box

Illustrator assigns the new action a default name (for example, Action 1 or Action 2).

Keyboard Shortcuts for Working in the Character and Paragraph Palettes

Windows [], Mac []

Increase the selected value by a small increment

Windows [], Mac []

Decrease the selected value by a small increment

Windows [Shift]-[], Mac [Shift]-[]

Increase the selected value by a large increment

Windows [Shift]-[], Mac [Shift]-[]

Decrease the selected value by a large increment

Windows [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[Shift]-[F], Mac [ z ]-[Option]-[Shift]-[F]

Select the Font Name field

Keyboard Shortcuts for Working in the Color Palette

Windows [Ctrl]-click the color bar, Mac [ z ]-click the color bar

Select the complement for the current color fill or stroke

Windows [Ctrl]-[Alt]-click the color bar, Mac [ z ]-[Option]-click the color bar

Select the complement for the nonactive fill or stroke

Windows [Alt]-click the color bar, Mac [Option]-click the color bar

Change the nonactive fill or stroke

Windows [Ctrl]-[Shift]-click the color bar, Mac [ z ]-[Shift]-click the color bar

Select the inverse for the current fill or stroke

Windows [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[Shift]-click the color bar, Mac [ z ]-[Option]-[Shift]-click the color bar

Select the inverse for the nonactive fill or stroke

Windows [Shift]-click the color bar, Mac [Shift]-click the color bar

Change the color mode

Windows [Shift]-drag the color slider, Mac [Shift]-drag the color slider

Move the color sliders in tandem

Keyboard Shortcuts for Working in the Layers Palette

Windows [Alt]-click the layer name, Mac [Option]-click the layer name

Select all objects on the layer

Windows [Alt]-click the eye icon, Mac [Option]-click the eye icon

Toggle the display of all layers except the selected layer

Windows [Ctrl]-click the eye icon, Mac [ z ]-click the eye icon

Toggle between Outline view and Preview for the selected layer

Windows [Ctrl]-[Alt]-click the eye icon, Mac [ z ]-[Option]-click the eye icon

Toggle between Outline view and Preview for all other layers

Windows [Alt]-click the expansion triangle, Mac [Option]-click the expansion triangle

Expand all sublayers

Windows [Ctrl]-click the New Layer button, Mac [ z ]-click the New Layer button

Create a new layer at the top of the layer list

Windows [Ctrl]-[Alt]-click the New Sublayer button, Mac [ z ]-[Option]-click the New Sublayer button

Create a new sublayer at the bottom of the layer

Windows [Ctrl]-[Alt]-click the New Layer button, Mac [ z ]-[Option]-click the New Layer button

Create a new layer below the selected layer

Windows [Alt]-drag a selection, Mac [Option]-drag a selection

Copy the selection to a new layer, a new sublayer, or a new group

Keyboard Shortcuts for Working in the Swatches Palette

Windows [Ctrl]-click the New Swatch button, Mac [ z ]-click the New Swatch button

Create a new spot color

Windows [Ctrl]-[Shift]-click the New Swatch button, Mac [ z ]-[Shift]-click the New Swatch button

Create a new global process color

Windows [Alt]-drag a swatch, Mac [Option]-drag a swatch

Replace the swatch on which you drop the swatch you dragged

Windows [Ctrl]-[Alt]-click in the swatch color list, Mac [ z ]-[Option]-click in the swatch color list

Select the swatch by name

Keyboard Shortcuts for Working in the Transform Palette

Windows [Shift]-[Enter], Mac [Shift]-[Return]

Enter the value but leave the focus in the edit field

Windows [Alt]-[Enter], Mac [Option]-[Return]

Enter the value and copy the object

Windows [Ctrl]-[Enter], Mac [ z ]-[Return]

Enter the value and scale the option proportionately for width or for height

Keyboard Shortcuts for Working in the Transparency Palette

Windows [Alt]-click a mask thumbnail, Mac [Option]-click a mask thumbnail

Change the mask to grayscale for editing

Windows [Shift]-click a mask thumbnail, Mac [Shift]-click a mask thumbnail

Disable or reenable the opacity mask

Windows [], Mac []

Increase opacity by 1 percent

Click in the Opacity field before using this shortcut and the next three shortcuts.

Windows [], Mac []

Decrease opacity by 1 percent

Windows [Shift]-[], Mac [Shift]-[]

Increase opacity by 10 percent

Windows [Shift]-[], Mac [Shift]-[]

Decrease opacity by 10 percent