Tools

These tools aren't the kind you buy at the Home Depot, but rather the kind that help you select objects, draw shapes, create graphs, and perform other functions with Adobe Creative Suite. Although each application contains a whole slew of tools, the good news is that many of them are the same across applications. We discuss these tools here, but before we do, let's first take a look at where the tools live.

The Toolbox

Basically a palette on its own, the toolbox is where you'll find all the tools for any of the suite applications. With the exception of GoLive CS2, the toolboxes are extremely alike across the rest of the suite (see Figure 4.17).

Figure 4.17. The toolboxes in Photoshop CS2, ImageReady CS2, Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2, and GoLive CS2.

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As you'll see later, GoLive doesn't really use tools because the interface is extremely context sensitive. As you click on parts of your page, your options automatically adapt and change to the needs of the object selected. GoLive does utilize the toolbox paradigm for adding objects to your page, making it at least similar in look and feel to its sibling applications.

As with other palettes, you can grab the toolbox from the top and position it to your liking. The top part contains a pretty graphic that helps identify which application you're in (sometimes the apps look so similar that you need to look at this image to tell which of the apps you're actually in). Clicking on this button launches a dialog box that gives you the option to connect to the Internet to check for software updates and the like.

InDesign and GoLive enable you to change the look or format of the toolbox to make it easier to position on your screen. For InDesign, you can double-click on the title bar of the toolbox to create a single row of tools rather than the default two-column setup. It saves a few valuable pixels on your screen and resembles the toolbox in QuarkXPress, if that's what you're more familiar with (see Figure 4.18). GoLive has a small button at the bottom of the toolbox that reformats the bar as a palettesimilar to how it appeared in previous versions of the product (see Figure 4.19).

Figure 4.18. The single-column configuration of the InDesign CS2 toolbox in both horizontal and vertical formats.

Figure 4.19. GoLive CS2's alternative toolbox configuration.

If you take a closer look at the toolbox, you'll notice that some of the tools have a miniscule triangle or arrow at the lower-right corner of the tool. This icon indicates that more tools are "hidden" behind that one (see Figure 4.20). As you'll quickly come to realize, Adobe applications have many tools, and it's impossible to display all of them at once without taking up a tremendous amount of screen real estate. Instead of trying to display them all, Adobe combined them into logical groups. Consider Illustrator's Pen tool, for example. Hidden under it are the Add Anchor Point tool, the Delete Anchor Point tool, and the Convert Anchor Point tool. To access these tools, simply click a tool with your mouse and keep the button pressed until the other tools pop up (see Figure 4.21). You can then choose one of the other tools.

Figure 4.20. A little black triangle indicates that there are hidden tools.

Figure 4.21. Accessing the hidden Pen tools in Illustrator CS2.

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Later in the chapter, we talk about keyboard shortcuts that can assist you in selecting tools quickly. One of the great things about keyboard shortcuts is that you can use them to select a tool that's hidden behind another one.

Sometimes you're continually jumping between tools that are grouped together (such as the Symbolism tools in Illustrator), and it can be quite tedious to continually access the hidden tools. Using a feature found in Illustrator (not in the other suite apps), if you look to the far right when you click and hold down the mouse to see all the tools in the group, you'll see a narrow button with an arrow in it, called the Tearoff icon (see Figure 4.22). When selected, it actually creates a mini toolbox with all the grouped tools in a row. You can position this anywhere on your screen, as needed (see Figure 4.23).

Figure 4.22. The tearoff handle.

Figure 4.23. A "mini toolbox" of the Pen tools in Illustrator CS2.

Selection Tools

Back in Chapter 2, "So Many Applications: Which One to Use?" I mentioned the importance of selecting things. I'd like to clarify that here and explain some of the methods of selections in the suite apps.

As you use your computer, you'll find that you're basically doing one of two things: creating content, when you're using tools or functions to add elements to your document; or editing content, when you're adjusting or modifying elements in your document. Here's a quick example of what I mean: When drawing a star in Illustrator, first you draw the star itself (creating content), and then you choose a color for it and position it just where you want it (editing content).

To edit content, you need to indicate what exactly you want to edit. This process is called making a selection. Depending on the program, there are many ways to achieve this. For the most part, Illustrator and InDesign are object-based programs, so making selections in those programs is very similar. Photoshop has similar selection tools for its vector shapes, but because it's mainly a pixel-based tool, it also has a range of other selection tools specific to selecting pixels themselves. GoLive, with its new visual CSS tools, does enable you to select objects, but it's also unique, in that you don't necessarily need any specific tool to select thingsit has more of a context-sensitive interface. We discuss each of these methods when we focus on each of the applications, but I wanted to touch on a few important concepts here.

Selections in Illustrator and InDesign

Both Illustrator and InDesign are primarily object-based programs, so you're usually selecting one of the following:

• An object

• Part of an object

• A group of objects

• Text

Illustrator and InDesign both have two primary selection tools: the black arrow and the white arrow (okay, so that's what I like to call them; their real names are the Selection tool and the Direct Selection tool). For the most part, the black arrow is used to select objects and groups of objects. The white arrow is used to select parts of objects (see Figure 4.24). In both applications, the Type tool is used to both create and edit text, so you use the Type tool to select text as well.

Figure 4.24. The Selection and Direct Selection tools in Adobe InDesign CS2.

There are two basic ways to select objects (see Figure 4.25) with the arrow tools. You can either click on the object you want to select, or click and drag over an area to select any objects that fall within that areaa method called marquee selection.

Figure 4.25. When an object is selected, it is highlighted (right), indicating so.

Let's start simple and talk about the first method. Using the black arrow, click once on an object to select it. You can then move the object around using the black arrow as well. Click on any empty space on your screen to deselect the object. Click on it again to select it. To select more than one object, you can press and hold the Shift key while clicking on additional objects (see Figure 4.26). You'll notice that with each click, you're adding objects to your selection, and you'll be able to move all the selected objects together at once. If you Shift-click on an object that's already selected, that object is deselected.

Figure 4.26. Multiple objects selected in Adobe InDesign CS2.

Did you Know?

When you think about it, the Shift key toggles a selection on or off. If you Shift-click an object that is not selected, the object becomes selected; if you Shift-click an object that is already selected, it becomes deselected.

If you want to select several objects, you can use the marquee method by clicking the mouse button on a blank area of the screen and holding the button down while dragging. As you drag the mouse, you'll notice a box being drawn (this is the marquee). When you let go of the mouse, whatever objects fall within the boundaries of the marquee become selected (see Figure 4.27).

Figure 4.27. The three steps to marquee selection: Click the mouse outside the objects, drag over the objects, and release the mouse.

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When you're marquee-selecting, it's important not to click directly on an object, or you'll simply be selecting and moving that object (as we discussed in the first method).

Sometimes it's useful to use both methods to make your selections. For example, say you have a group of 10 objects and you want to select them all except for one in the middle. Using the first method, you might try to select one and then Shift-click each of the other eight objects to select the ones you want. However, you could use the marquee method to select them all and then Shift-click on the one object you don't want, to get the same selection much faster.

Selections in Photoshop

Photoshop is primarily a pixel-based program, so most of the selection tools are focused on selected pixels instead of objects. In other words, you can't just select the "sky" in a photograph because Photoshop doesn't see it as a single object, but rather as a collection of many individual pixels. The three primary selection tools in Photoshop are the Marquee selection tool, the Lasso tool, and the Magic Wand tool. I'm sure you're sitting at home thinking to yourself, "A magic wand? This guy is pulling my leg…." Well, before you put down this book to pick up the latest copy of the National Enquirer instead, let me explain.

The Marquee selection tool (see Figure 4.28) selects a range of pixels in much the same way we discussed marquee selections before. You drag a box, and whatever pixels fall inside the box become selected (see Figure 4.29). Several variations of the Marquee tool exist in Photoshopone for making ellipse-shape selections, one for selecting a single vertical row of pixels, and one that does the same for horizontal rows of pixels. To add to your selection, press the Shift key to marquee more pixels (see Figure 4.30); to remove pixels from your selection, press the Option (Alt) key as you draw your marquee.

Figure 4.28. The Marquee selection tool in Photoshop CS2.

Figure 4.29. An area of pixels selected.

Figure 4.30. As you press the Shift or Option (Alt) keys, the cursor indicates whether you are adding or removing from your selection.

The Lasso tool (see Figure 4.31) acts exactly like the Marquee selection tool, with one major difference: It lets you select pixels by drawing a free-form path. Remember that with the Marquee tools, you can select only with rectangular- and elliptical-shape boundaries, but the Lasso tool lets you draw an irregularly shaped path. For example, the Elliptical Marquee tool might be perfect for selecting the sun in a sky, but the Lasso tool would be perfect for selecting branches of a tree (see Figure 4.32). To use the Lasso tool, you simply click and drag to draw a path around the area of pixels you want to select. If you let go of the mouse before you get back to the point of the path where you started, Photoshop draws a straight line from the last point your cursor was to the point where the path started, completing the shape for you.

Figure 4.31. The Lasso selection tool in Photoshop CS2.

Figure 4.32. An area of pixels selected with the Lasso tool.

In addition, Photoshop has a Polygonal Lasso tool, which enables you to mark boundaries by clicking repeatedly (almost like connect the dots), as well as a Magnetic Lasso tool, which "magically" detects edges as you drag along them. We discuss these in detail when we get to Chapter 5, "Using Adobe Photoshop CS2."

Finally, there's the Magic Wand tool (see Figure 4.33). Because of the nature of pixel-based images (photographs), colors are usually painterly, or what we call continuous tone. So if there's a blue sky in your picture, each blue pixel is probably a slightly different shade of blue. The Magic Wand tool selects regions of the same color, but with a tolerance. That means you can control how close the colors have to match to be selected. For example, you click on the blue sky, as we just mentioned, but you don't want white clouds selected, right? The Magic Wand tool can differentiate the colors and select just the blue sky (see Figure 4.34). Why the folks at Adobe called this the Magic Wand tool is beyond me.

Figure 4.33. The Magic Wand selection tool in Photoshop CS2.

Figure 4.34. An area of pixels selected with the Magic Wand.

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You can control the tolerance level (see Figure 4.35) for the Magic Wand in the Tool Options bar (the context-sensitive bar that sits right under the menu bar). We discuss exactly how this works when we delve into Photoshop CS2 in Chapter 5.

Figure 4.35. The Tolerance level setting for the Magic Wand in the Tool Options bar in Photoshop CS2.

If you've used Illustrator before, you might know that Illustrator also has a Lasso and a Magic Wand. Although they work the same way as the Photoshop tools in concept, Illustrator's tools are built to select objects. So the Lasso tool in Illustrator lets you select objects using nonrectangular marquees, and the Magic Wand tool has many options for selecting a range of objects that share similar attributes (such as selecting all objects filled with a "yellowish" color).

Selections in GoLive

GoLive CS2 introduces visual CSS layout tools that act much like what you're used to seeing in Illustrator or InDesign. However, most of the selection behavior in GoLive is context based. As you click on an object, the options that appear in the interface change to represent the things available to you for that object. When we explore GoLive in Chapter 9, "Using Adobe GoLive CS2," you'll see exactly how this works.

Drawing Tools

The world of design was forever changed with the introduction of Adobe Illustrator in the late 1980s. Since then, drawing on a computer has become an art form in itself. Illustrator introduced the world to the Pen tool, and since then Adobe applications have added many more such tools, each for specific tasks. Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Star, and Line tools all give users the ability to quickly and easily draw basic shapes. The Pen, Pencil, and Paintbrush tools give users the freedom of creating more free-form and natural renderings. Many of these tools appear across the apps, and they all work in much the same way.

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Because applications address particular tasks, there might be some differences in how the same tool is used among the applications. For example, the Paintbrush tool in Photoshop has different settings and options because it's a pixel-based tool. Illustrator's Paintbrush has other options available pertaining to the object-based nature of vector graphics.

Drawing a rectangle in Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign can be accomplished in exactly the same way. You start by selecting the Rectangle tool, and then you click and drag (see Figure 4.36). We go into specific details about each of these tools when we talk about the applications themselves, but I wanted to point out how learning even one application in the suite can give you the basics on using the other apps as well.

Figure 4.36. Drawing a rectangle in any of the suite applications.