When you first install FreeHand, some of the panels and inspectors are grouped into the arrangements that the Macromedia engineers thought you would like to work with. You can change these groups as well as resize the panels into whatever arrangements suit you.
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Only those panels and inspectors that have tabs can be grouped together. The other panels and toolbars cannot 555x2321f be grouped.
To change the active panel in a group:
Click the tab for a panel. That panel will become the active panel and will be displayed in front of the other panels in the group
To combine panels into a group:
Drag a panel by its tab onto the area of another panel.
Release the mouse to allow the panel to join the group
To release a panel from a group:
Drag a panel by its tab outside the area of the panel.
When the panel is outside the area of the group, release the mouse . The panel is separated from the group.
You can also change the size of some of the panels, inspectors, and toolbars. This is helpful for panels such as the Layers and Swatches panels that may contain many items.
To resize onscreen elements (Mac):
Drag the resize control in the lower right-hand corner of the panel or inspector
To resize panels (Win):
Move the cursor over the sides or corners of the panel. A double-headed arrow appears.
Drag the double-headed arrow to change the size of the panel
To minimize and maximize panels (Win):
Click the minimize icon of a panel to display only the title bar of the panel
or
Click the maximize icon of a minimized panel to expand it to its full size.
To minimize and maximize panels (Mac):
Click the minimize icon of a panel to display only the title bar of the panel
or
Click the minimize icon of a minimized panel to expand it to its full size.
FreeHand has another way to group panels together called docking. Docking lets you group panels and inspectors so that they act as a unit. Even the non-tabbed panels that can't be grouped can still be docked to other panels.
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You can dock panels from top to bottom or side to side. (When many panels are docked together they are called barges!)
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Once panels are docked, they are minimized and maximized as a single unit. This makes it easy to quickly open and close panels.
To dock panels:
Hold the Control (Mac) or Ctrl (Win) key as you drag the panel by its title bar next to the panel you want to dock it to.
Release the mouse button. A filled area between the panels indicates that the panels are docked to each other
To release docked panels:
Click the filled area between the docked panels.
or
Hold the Control (Mac) or Ctrl (Win) key and drag the panel away from the other.
Adding Screen Real EstateI like to spread out all my panels into individual elements. Unfortunately that takes up a lot of room on my monitor. Fortunately, I found it very easy to add a second monitor to my system. So all my panels and inspectors are on one screen and my artwork is on my main screen. I already had an old monitor in my office, but it's not too expensive to buy a second monitor. Of course if you've got three thousand dollars lying around, you can always buy one of those incredible Apple Cinema Displays. |
Unfortunately, toolbars cannot be docked or grouped with either panels or inspectors. However, there is a special type of docking that allows you to fix toolbars so that they stick to the top, bottom, or sides of your work area.
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Even though it is called a panel, the Tools panel can also be docked like the toolbars.
To dock a toolbar to the work areas:
Drag the toolbar towards the edge of the work area.
When you see the outline of the toolbar, release the mouse. The toolbar appears inside a gray area that is part of the work area
To released a docked toolbar:
Drag the toolbar out from the gray docking area.
When you see the outline of the toolbar, release the mouse button. The docked toolbar will be converting into a floating toolbar.
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You can also customize toolbars so they display the exact commands and tools that you want. For instance, you can move the tools from the Xtra Tools toolbar over to the Tools panel. (See Chapter 32 Customizing FreeHand," for more information on customizing toolbars.)
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