From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

947 A new way to unlock stuff in Illustrator

From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

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947 A new way to unlock stuff in Illustrator

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- Hey gang, this is Deke McClelland. Welcome to Deke's Techniques. Today, we're inside Illustrator, the world's most powerful vector-based drawing program. But like any huge, awesome 33-year-old computer application, it has its fabled Achilles heel. In the case of Illustrator, that Achilles heel has a name and that name is Lock. To lock a selected object, a path outline, a text block, anything that you want to protect from harm, you choose Object, Lock, Selection. So convoluted. To unlock, choose Object, Unlock All, and then relock the stuff that you still want to keep locked. So convoluted. I'm not saying that there haven't been workarounds, but now there is a new way to unlock one specific object. I mean, it's only been 33 years since the program was first invented. So yay, progress. Here, let me show you exactly how it works. All right, so there are all kinds of reasons to lock stuff inside Illustrator. And so, by way of example, let's say I want to marquee a bunch of these elements associated with this California surf sign. If I were to drag outside the objects, like so, then I would inadvertently move that sky in the background, because it's not locked. And so I'll go ahead and press Control + Z or Command + Z on the Mac to undo that change. And then, if I were working old school inside Illustrator, I'd go up to the Object menu, choose Lock, and then choose Selection, which has a very old school keyboard shortcut, at least 30 years old, of Control + 2 here in the PC or Command + 2 on the Mac. And now notice I can go ahead and marquee those sign elements, like so. All right, now I'm going to click off the objects, just in order to de-select them, and I'll go ahead and click on this sign, and then I'll Shift + click on the word surf right here, and I'll return to the Object menu, choose Lock, and choose Selection. Or if you prefer, you have that shortcut of Control + 2 here on the PC or Command + 2 on the Mac. Now let's say I want to drag the word surf upward a little bit. If I try to do that I end up moving that dark blue path outline and that's because the word surf is locked. So I'll just go ahead and press Control + Z or Command + Z on the Mac to undo that change. Now, were you to still work old school, then if you wanted to unlock the word surf, you would have to go to the Object menu and choose Unlock All. But, of course, that would unlock the sky as well, which is definitely not what I want. Another way to work, which is a lot more new school by comparison, is to go to the Window menu and choose the Layers command in order to bring up the Layers panel. And in case you're interested, I'm working inside the Essentials Classic workspace at the moment. And then I would twirl open the sign layer, at which point you can see little lock icons in front of the word surf, as well as in front of this big shape that represents this white shape in the background. And so if I wanted to lock that big blue path outline, all I'd have to do is click in this second column right next to it and that would lock it down. If I wanted to unlock it, I would just click on the lock icon again. All right, so that's a great way of working, but there's a newer way to work still. And that's to just right-click on the object that you want to unlock, which in my case is the word surf, then choose Unlock to bring up a sub-menu of objects under your cursor. At which point I could unlock that word surf or I could unlock the big group right there, that white sign in the background, or I could unlock the sky. And notice there in the document window you're going to see a highlight around the object that you've selected. I want to unlock the word surf however, so I'll go ahead and choose surf and notice that it is now unlocked independently of the other objects that I've locked inside this illustration. And so, again, you just right-click on the object you want to unlock, choose, unlock, and then choose the desired object from the sub-menu. If you're a member of LinkedIn Learning, I have a followup movie in which I show you yet another way to unlock specific objects inside Illustrator that involves the use of an actual on-canvas lock icon. Is it a gimmick? Yes, it's a gimmick, and yet I will show you. Next week, Photoshop 2021, or version 22 if you prefer, introduces an entirely redesigned Line Tool that lets you draw open path outlines, the thickness of which you can adjust after the fact. Wait, a better Line Tool in Photoshop? Who cares? You care. Deke's Techniques, each and every week, keep watching.

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