Customizing Menus and Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are fantastic. When you are starting to learn a new application there may be a bit of time hunting and pecking through the menus trying to find commands, but these tips will help for both menus and tools shortcuts.

What’s on the Menu?

Go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts to be presented with a large dialog box with lots of options. There is a dropdown list for setting shortcuts for the tools and for menu commands.

The Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box will list all the tools and any shortcuts associated with those tools. Not all tool will have shortcuts, but the most-used tools will. If your workflow requires the use of tools that do not have shortcuts applied as a default, click on the tool and the Shortcut and Symbol field will become active. Enter in a shortcut that best fits your workflow. If you enter a shortcut that is already in use (that is, it’s applied to another tool), there will be a conflict. You can override that conflict and use your shortcut as the default or choose different shortcut command, keeping the original shortcut intact.

Undo will return the original shortcut to the default. Go To Conflict will go to the tool that has that keyboard shortcut you want to use. Clear will clear the default shortcut on that tools and allow you to enter that shortcut for another tool.

Once a new default shortcut is created, the Tool Hint will reflect that new shortcut when you hover your cursor over the tool.

This process is the same when you choose Menu Items from the list. Any new shortcuts will be reflected next to the Menu command.

Any changes to the default shortcuts will require you save the shortcuts as a new set. The Illustrator defaults cannot be overwritten so any changes will require a newly named set of shortcuts when you click OK. A dialog box will appear asking for a new name for your custom presets. Enter in a name and click OK.

Keys to Success

You have seen those posters online that can show you all the shortcuts—and you can purchase it for $25.00. Instead, you can make your own for free! Click on the Export Text… button and you will get a text file that reflects all the default and customized shortcuts.