Creating keyboard shortcuts and actions - Illustrator Tutorial

will help make routine tasks and functionality easier to use, thereby speeding up your workflow without compromising your quality. So in this movie, I'll show you how to create your own custom keyboard shortcut and one of the frustrations I found was in some of their commands, so if you're creating a graphic like this, it's a tree, it has a trunk, has all of these leaves, if I want to move this around as a whole, I could either Command + A if it's the only thing on my art board or just Drag + Select everything and I can move it around like this. That's fine, that will work, but let's say I forget a couple of these leaves and I start moving around and then all of a sudden, there's some problems there. So what you would want to do is you would want to select everything and Command + G was to group. That was easy to learn. I could remember that and it was an easy one-hand command where I could just hold down the command key, hit G, and now it selects as a whole, selects as a group, and I can move it around at will. But what wasn't so easy was the command to ungroup. If I go up to object, you can see group, Command + G, ungroup, well, this was like Shift + Command + G. Well, why is that a problem? Well, one, it's three keys, so you have to use three different fingers on one hand and it gets a little problematic on a PC. It's not too bad in terms of how it maps up with your hand, but still, you're having to push two buttons with like, your thumb and pinky and then go over and tap the G and it's a little awkward and it certainly isn't fast, and on a Mac, it even gets worse because the keys are even arranged differently in terms of instead of control, you have command, and so it becomes like playing Twister with your hand. That's a reference to an old game. Some of you might not know that. (chuckles) Now that I think about it, but anyway, it made it slower to do a simple command that I do all the time, which is group, ungroup. So I wanted to improve that. That's about the time somebody told me about keyboard shortcuts, and that's what I want to go over now is how to improve this process. So right now, our artwork is grouped. Now to set up your own keyboard shortcuts, you go to edit, pull down to keyboard shortcuts, and we're going to open up this window, and right now, you can see I have some saved because I've saved my set as GS commands. Stands for Glitschka Studios commands, and we want to change a menu item, so we're going to go to menu commands, select that, go under object. You can see we have group is already, by default, in Illustrator, Command + G, but this is the command it's currently at, and I want to improve this or make it easier, so we're going to go ahead and select this and I'm going to tap one of my F keys because I apply all of my keyboard shortcuts to F keys on my keyboard, and in this case, this is going to be F6. So all I'll have to do is hit F6 with my shape selected in Illustrator. Before we can start using this, we have to save it, so we're going to click here and it's going to say, do you want to name it this? Yes, we'll keep it the same, and then it says you're overriding, that's fine. We'll click yes. Then we're going to click out of this. so we're going to go to the option menu here. We're going to click on new action. You want to make sure to have your shape selected, and then we're going to give it a name. We'll just call it what it is, offset, We'll just call it what it is, offset, and I like to color mine red, and I like to color mine red, and in this case, we're going to pick an F key setup and in this case, we're going to pick an F key setup that we're not using, F4, that we're not using, F4, but we're going to click on shift here. but we're going to click on shift here. This means you have to hold down shift This means you have to hold down shift and then press F4 and then press F4 or we could do a command where you hold down command or we could do a command where you hold down command and then you hit F4 or both, and then you hit F4 or both, but I think in this case, we'll just do shift, but I think in this case, we'll just do shift, and now we're going to record our actions, and now we're going to record our actions, so we'll click record. so we'll click record. Now it's recording everything we're doing, Now it's recording everything we're doing, so we're going to go up here, object, so we're going to go up here, object, we're going to go to path, we're going to go to offset path. we're going to go to path, we're going to go to offset path. Right now, it's 12, Right now, it's 12, but we want it to be six, but we want it to be six, so it fits our tolerance with icons, so it fits our tolerance with icons, and we want round beyond, and we want round beyond, and we're going to go ahead and click okay. and we're going to go ahead and click okay. That does the round, That does the round, and now we're going to hit stop recording and now we're going to hit stop recording and that's it. and that's it. That's all it takes to record your action. That's all it takes to record your action. Now since this action's recorded, Now since this action's recorded, let's go ahead and get rid of what we created. let's go ahead and get rid of what we created. Select the shape again, Select the shape again, and we're going to go ahead and hold down the shift key and we're going to go ahead and hold down the shift key and hit F4, and hit F4, and it creates our offset, and it creates our offset, so that's how quickly it is. so that's how quickly it is. We don't have to go to a pull-down menu We don't have to go to a pull-down menu and pull down. and pull down. We can simply select our shape, hold shift down, We can simply select our shape, hold shift down, hit F4, and we have our offset done. hit F4, and we have our offset done. So that's the benefit of having a recorded action So that's the benefit of having a recorded action and applying it to a key command, and applying it to a key command, so it's a one-button push, or in this case, so it's a one-button push, or in this case, you hold one button down and push one button you hold one button down and push one button to get it to work. to get it to work. So let's go back to our icon set. So let's go back to our icon set. Let's go ahead and zoom in on this icon artwork Let's go ahead and zoom in on this icon artwork that we have the base vectors built for, that we have the base vectors built for, and we're going to put this action to use now, and we're going to put this action to use now, and initially, I want to select these shapes. and initially, I want to select these shapes. The clipboard, the clip, and the hand. The clipboard, the clip, and the hand. We're going to go ahead and offset those We're going to go ahead and offset those and all we have to do is hold shift down and hit F4. and all we have to do is hold shift down and hit F4. Now we have the offset. Now we have the offset. Just so you can see it, Just so you can see it, we're going to fill it with yellow we're going to fill it with yellow and unite it with pathfinder. and unite it with pathfinder. This is sitting on top of our torso of our figure This is sitting on top of our torso of our figure and we're going to go ahead and we're going to go ahead and minus front, so we've created that gap. and minus front, so we've created that gap. There's a few more gaps we need to create. There's a few more gaps we need to create. We're going to select the clip, the hand, We're going to select the clip, the hand, and this part of the hand on this one, and this part of the hand on this one, and we'll hold shift down and we'll hold shift down and we'll go ahead and hit F4. and we'll go ahead and hit F4. We get that. We get that. We'll go ahead and fill it with yellow. We'll go ahead and fill it with yellow. We're going to go ahead and unite these shapes, We're going to go ahead and unite these shapes, and with those shapes united, and with those shapes united, we can now select the inner shape of the clipboard we can now select the inner shape of the clipboard and I want to make sure this is like, a donut shape and I want to make sure this is like, a donut shape with the hole in the middle, with the hole in the middle, so we're going to go ahead and minus front those, so we're going to go ahead and minus front those, so now this is one unit, so now this is one unit, and we can take this offset and we can take this offset and we'll go ahead and minus front to create the gaps and we'll go ahead and minus front to create the gaps on there, select these hands, unite those together, on there, select these hands, unite those together, select all the things that are going to be colored the same. select all the things that are going to be colored the same. This is where we can grab the eyedropper This is where we can grab the eyedropper and sample the colors we're already using like this. and sample the colors we're already using like this. This will become green. This will become green. His head will be, actually, you know what? His head will be, actually, you know what? That should be green. That should be green. His head should be blue, His head should be blue, blue, this will be blue, blue, this will be blue, and the notes on the clipboard are blue, and the notes on the clipboard are blue, and that's how I'd use it in the context of a project and that's how I'd use it in the context of a project where I'm going to be doing this gap on the artwork where I'm going to be doing this gap on the artwork over and over and over again over and over and over again as I'm creating the icons and having action like this as I'm creating the icons and having action like this for this specific project for this specific project is going to make the process faster. is going to make the process faster. Now if I do that same setting a lot, Now if I do that same setting a lot, you could save it, you could save it, but I don't think I'd need six points on everything but I don't think I'd need six points on everything all the time, all the time, but it's definitely going to save me a lot of time and effort but it's definitely going to save me a lot of time and effort on this project, on this project, so it's a good candidate for creating so it's a good candidate for creating that kind of keyboard shortcut that kind of keyboard shortcut and action to work hand in hand. and action to work hand in hand. I should point out that not every pull-down menu I should point out that not every pull-down menu is recordable in Illustrator. is recordable in Illustrator. Many are, but not all of them. Many are, but not all of them. I wish it wasn't that way, I wish it wasn't that way, but that is the reality of the application as it is now. but that is the reality of the application as it is now. But remember, any task or pull-down menu functionality But remember, any task or pull-down menu functionality you use on a regular basis you use on a regular basis or if you're working on a specific project or if you're working on a specific project and you're going to do a routine task over and over and you're going to do a routine task over and over and over again, and over again, those are great candidates to replace those are great candidates to replace with a keyboard shortcut or a recorded action with a keyboard shortcut or a recorded action or combining them together as you saw to do both. or combining them together as you saw to do both. But I warn you, But I warn you, once you start customizing your workflow, once you start customizing your workflow, you'll want to automate everything you can. you'll want to automate everything you can. They're kind of addicting in that respect. They're kind of addicting in that respect.