Just saw this over at design blog BittBox: when drawing with the Shape tools in Illustrator (rectangle, circle etc.), holding the tilde key (the squiggle key to the left of the 1 key on U.S. keyboards) and then dragging the mouse will result in lots of duplicates of the shape following the trail of your mouse pointer.
Continue reading 'Adobe Illustrator’s Tilde Key Trick'
by George Coghill
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Published on
September 9, 2007 in
productivity, reviews, software and tools.
Tags: Apple, art, keyboard commands, keyboard shortcuts, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, productivity, shareware, software, tool, vector.
Default Folder X is one of those shareware utility applications that seem pretty handy while you are demoing, but until you use another Mac without Default Folder installed (or the demo runs out), you don’t realize exactly how perfect the software actually is.
I constantly run across these “714 Absolutely Essential Mac Applications” blog posts that always leave this one out. And I think the only reason is that the author is unaware of it’s existence. There’s no other explanation. Half of the time the apps I see on those lists are so-so anyways.
So what is this so-called “Default Folder” anyways? In short, it’s a way for you to access — from the Open/Save dialog windows — not only commonly used folders, but also recently used folders and open Finder windows, all with (mostly) user-defined keyboard shortcuts.
Continue reading 'Default Folder X – Essential Mac Productivity Utility Software'
by George Coghill
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Here’s a quick tip for you Mac OS X users out there: you can move any window behind the currently active window (also known as the window that has “focus”) without activating it/bringing it to the front.
This one’s real simple: hold down the Command (Apple) key, and then click on the background window’s title bar area (as you normally would) and voilà – you’re moving the window in the background. You can even grab the scroll bar and move it if you have access to it.
Continue reading 'OS X Tip: Move Windows In The Background Without Activating Them'
by George Coghill
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Published on
August 7, 2007 in
productivity.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Apple, art, Creative Suite, free, illustrator, InDesign, keyboard commands, keyboard shortcuts, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, Photoshop, productivity, software, tip, tool.
Here’s a cool little idea from the geniuses at CreativeTechs.com: “cheatsheets” for Adobe software that are designed to print on a 3×5 index card, complete with space reserved to punch holes for a binder. Designed with the GTD/Hipster PDA crowd in mind. And they’re free!
This link is to the PDF cheatsheet for the Adobe pen tool, since most (or all) of it’s features work the same across the Creative Suite. A real cool visual reference guide, and just one in a series of cheatsheets for Adobe apps as well as other computer and Mac related info that you just sometimes need at your fingertips.
Looks like they are just starting out with these, so be sure to subcribe to the RSS feed and collect ‘em all!
by George Coghill
View my cartoon character and logo illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Be sure to check out my live and recorded drawing, sketching & vectoring videos.
Published on
August 2, 2007 in
productivity.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, art, illustrator, keyboard commands, keyboard shortcuts, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, productivity, software, tip.
So I was digging around in Illustrator’s Keyboard Shortcut preferences, and discovered some interesting commands available that I was totally unaware of, as well as some commands I had been wishing were available.
Some of these are my own fault for not exploring Illustrator’s menus properly, but others are just locked away in limbo, hidden from all but us intrepid (and geeky) explorers. And some of the commands are available, but with no default keyboard shortcut assigned to them, but they are available for you to add your own.
These are sure to be productivity boosters once you get the muscle-memory flowing for them. I know just coming back here to finish up this post after working in Illustrator I had already forgotten most of these. It’s weird how you get used to working within the limitations of the software even when you know a better way. I am just now getting used to using my fancy-schmancy new “Zoom to Selection” Illustrator plugin after having it installed for over a month and using Illustrator just about every day since then.
Continue reading '5 Obscure Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts That Shouldn’t Be Obscure'
by George Coghill
View my cartoon character and logo illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Be sure to check out my live and recorded drawing, sketching & vectoring videos.
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