Illustrator CC Question

[ColorCrest]

1. ai has no shortcuts assigned to the align functions and has a limited selection of keyboard shortcuts one can manually assign

Did you fully explore the Keyboard Shortcuts feature in Illustrator?

 

[myront]

Did you fully explore the Keyboard Shortcuts feature in Illustrator?

uh....probably not. Enlighten me

 

[Wildgoose]

AI is my fav but I have to hand it to Flexi on some things. Someone earlier commented that Flexi had nothing on AI. Try a true block shadow in AI. PIA. I do them regularly but there is no quick method for a cut-ready vector whereas flexi spits those things out effortlessly. No quick key that I know of for align to artboard. I actually still use CS5 because I don't like to pay rent on my design program. Good luck on your endeavor.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I appreciate the replies, I'm going to try the suggestions later this week... been on the road and away from my main PC.

 

[Johnny Best]

I have used Illustrator since it came out. I purchased Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo and I am using those more and more and really like them. I think the total price for each one was $49 and you get free upgrades. Also use ON1 for photo editing.

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

uh....probably not. Enlighten me

You can modify almost any shortcut in Illustrator. I've never messed with it before, but it's there. CRTL+SHFT+K, I think?

Edit: ALT+SHFT+CTRL+K or in the Edit menu.

 

[Bobby H]

AI is my fav but I have to hand it to Flexi on some things. Someone earlier commented that Flexi had nothing on AI. Try a true block shadow in AI.

Adobe Illustrator can only do a block shadow effect if the text object (or other graphic element) is rotated in 3D space. It won't perform a parallel block shadow effect. I've seen odd work-arounds, such as creating a jillion steps in a blend operation between two copies of the same object. But that stinks.

At the same time, I'm not a big fan of the block shadow effect in Flexi. It sometimes glitches out. The extrude effect in CorelDRAW is okay, but even that feature has issues with creating a clean block shadow effect. OTOH, I do like the new specific block shadow feature introduced in CorelDRAW 2018. It achieves more desirable results than trying to use the Extrude feature and weld those results.

Flexi is great for a lot of sign production tasks, but I don't use it on my design work station (we have it on 3 other machines). The big deal breaker for me is lack of proper support for OpenType fonts. You can't use the extended character sets in deluxe OTF fonts without major, time-wasting work-arounds. It's a lot easier using a recent version of CorelDRAW. And then even CorelDRAW isn't up to full speed on type. Gotta use Adobe Illustrator to access OpenType Variable fonts.

 

[Johnny Best]

Under Edit menu on a Mac...

 

[shoresigns]

Did you fully explore the Keyboard Shortcuts feature in Illustrator?

You can modify almost any shortcut in Illustrator. I've never messed with it before, but it's there.

We covered this earlier in the thread. You can't set keyboard shortcuts for the Align functions in Illustrator. You can only set a shortcut to open the Align panel.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

We covered this earlier in the thread. You can't set keyboard shortcuts for the Align functions in Illustrator. You can only set a shortcut to open the Align panel.

I do believe though you can set them up as actions however.

 

[ColorCrest]

We covered this earlier in the thread. You can't set keyboard shortcuts for the Align functions in Illustrator. You can only set a shortcut to open the Align panel.

Simply record an action for an alignment option, say align tops as the example, and assign a key command to run the action when you're creating the action itself.

Problems may arise if you step on another key command already assigned somewhere else such as the operating system.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Simply record an action for an alignment option, say align tops as the example, and assign a key command to run the action when you're creating the action itself.

Is this something new within a CC version?

What I had done is setup a global macro after creating the action and then have it run the action that way. It's actually separate from Ai, not within in program. I'm unaware of being able to assign a shortcut to the action itself while creating the action within Ai. But again, that could be a new(er) CC function and not in any of my legacy versions. Or it's a technique that I'm unaware of, which is quite possible.

 

[shoresigns]

Is this something new within a CC version?

What I had done is setup a global macro after creating the action and then have it run the action that way. It's actually separate from Ai, not within in program. I'm unaware of being able to assign a shortcut to the action itself while creating the action within Ai. But again, that could be a new(er) CC function and not in any of my legacy versions. Or it's a technique that I'm unaware of, which is quite possible.

I have no idea when it was added, but it's been there as long as I can remember. Here's what it looks like:

It's restricted to only function keys F2–F12, which makes it pretty annoying if you want to set up alignment shortcuts as others have suggested. Illustrator Actions also do not record your Align To setting, so you cannot use actions and shortcuts to specify whether you're aligning to the artboard, the key object, or the entire selection.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I have no idea when it was added, but it's been there as long as I can remember. Here's what it looks like:
View attachment 139097
It's restricted to only function keys F2–F12, which makes it pretty annoying if you want to set up alignment shortcuts as others have suggested. Illustrator Actions also do not record your Align To setting, so you cannot use actions and shortcuts to specify whether you're aligning to the artboard, the key object, or the entire selection.

Aaahhh that. I bypass that with my own bindings as I use something else that applies system wide. The joys of running Windows in a VM at times.

 

[zspace]

In Flexi, you can take an object and align it to the left, center bottom or top...you can also distribute.. Does Illustrator CC have that function? If it does, where is it and is there a keyboard shortcut like in Flexi?

I tried Googling this question but can't find an answer.

OK, I found that when you select BOTH objects you can do the align, but what if you just want to align one object with the whole artboard?

The transform window has an align tab. That tab has your alignment and distribution tools. There is a drop down that lets you select alignment based on the art board or the selected items.