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Following are some tips on how to manage Layers in Adobe Illustrator
Open up a document and view the Layers palette(Key board shortcut
F7). If you expand a layer you will see the sublayers and objects
it contains. Layer 1 is called top-layer because it is not
nested within another layer.
You can create sublayers within top layers and you can nest
objects, groups and other sublayers within sublayers.
New vector objects will be identified in the Layers palette as
- <path>
for new vector objects
- <image>
for raster images or rasterized objects
- <mesh>
for new mesh objects
Layers and sublayers are numbered in the order they are created.
To Choose Layer Palette Options
Choose Palette Options from Layers palette menu
Modify the layers according to your preference
- row size
- thumbnails
- show layers only
Creating layers
- click on the top level
layer name above which you want the new layer to appear
- click the new layer
icon
- to create a new layer
with options, hold down the Alt/Option key and click the
new layer icon
To create
a sublayer
- Click on the top level
layer name above which you want the new sublayer to appear
- click the new sublayer
icon
- to create a new sublayer
with options, hold down the Option key and click the new
layer icon
To
create a group
- Choose the selection
tool (V) and marquis around the objects you want to create. You
can also shift-click on differnt objects to select them if marquising
is not an option.
- Choose Object menu>
Group or press Ctrl-G.
- control-click/right
click to group using the contect menu
Activating layers
In order to control where a newly created path will appear in the
stacking order you need to know how to activate a top-level layer,
sublayer, group or object in the Layers palette.
Note: Activating a layer is not the same thing as selecting
it.
To activate a layer, sublayer, group, or object
- Click on the name,
not the selection area at the far right to activate a layer. The
current layer indicator will appear on the right side.
Quick activate: Ctrl-Alt-click/Command Option click anywhere
on the Layers palette list, then start typing a layer, group, or
object name. You can type a layer number without typing the word
"layer".
When more than one later or sublayer is active, they can be restacked
on the palette en masse and the same layer options can be applied
to them.
To activate multiple layers
- Click a top-level
layer or sublayer on the Layers palette
- Shift-click
another layer or sublayer. The layers you clicked on and all the
layer in between them of a similar kind will become activated
(highlighted). or
- Ctrl-click
/cmnd-click noncontiguous layer( or sublayer) names.
Only the layers you click on will become active
- Command-click /ctrl-click
to deactivate one layer when more than one layer is active.
Selecting Objects
One of the new features of the layers palette is that it can be
used to select paths or groups. You can select paths, meaning anchor
points, handles and all.
To select all the objects in one layer
- Click on the selection
at the far right side of a layer or a sublayer
To deselect any object individually,
- Shift-Click its selection
square
To deselect all objects in a layer
- Shift-click the selection
square for the layer all objects will be deselected
To select one object
To select multiple objects on different layers
- expand the layer on
which you want to work. Click a selection area. Hold down the
shift key and select another layer. You can select multiple, nonconsecutive
layers
Choosing Layer options
- Select a layer then
go to the Layers palette options menu and select Options ("layer
name")
- you can make layers
non-printable change the color coding, lock the layer and other
actions
To hide all top-level layers except one
- Option-click/Alt-click
in the eye column to hide/show all top-level layers except the
one you click on
To change the view for a top-level layer
- To display a top level
layer in Outline view, Command-click/ctrl-click
the eye icon for that layer. The eye will become hollow. To redisplay,
click the icon again.
To display all top-level layers in Outline View except
one
- command-option click/ctrl-alt-click
a toplevel layer eye icon.
Working with
Groups
To Select some objects
in a group:
- Expand the group's
list in the Layer's palette, then Shift-click the selection area
at the far right side for each.
- To Deselect, SHift-Click
the selection area again.
To Copy an object in a group:
Click on the selection area of the objectyou want to move. Alt/Option
-drag the selection square up or down, then release the mouse when
the outline square is at the desired stacking position either inside
the same group or in another sub-layer or top-level layer.
Layer management
To locate an object on the layer palette
- Choose the selection
tool(V)
- Select the object
in the illustration window that you want to locate in the Layers
palette. You can select multiple objects
- Choose Locate Object
from the Layers palette menu. The selected layer will expand and
a selection square will appear.
- If "Locate Layer
" appears on the palette menu instead of "Locate Object,"
choose palette Options from the palette menu and uncheck the "Show
Layers Only" option. This will fix the problem.
To move layers, sublayers, groups or objects to a new
layer
- Command-click/ctrl-click
the layer, group, or object names you want to gather together.
They all have to be at the same indent level. Don't select the
layers
- Choose Collect in
new Layer from the layers palette options menu. Active sublayers,
groups etc. will be nested inside a new sublayer within the same
top-level layer
The Release to layers command disperses all the
objects or groupss that are nested within the currently highlighted
layer onto separate layers within that layer
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