Ever wish you could to a particular option or mode more quickly? Would you like to have your own static toolbar with a set of buttons you use all the time? In this example, see how you can put Draw's powerful and customizable user interface to work for you by building your own Snap-Mode toolbar. The process for creating and customizing toolbars in PhotoPaint is exactly the same.

Create a new toolbar
Begin by moving your cursor to any toolbar. Right-click and select "Toolbars" from the menu that appears.

In the Toolbars dialog box, click the "New" button. Enter a name for the new toolbar. In this example, "Snaps" is a good name, because this toolbar will hold buttons for setting the snap modes on or off.

Enter the user customization mode
With the new toolbar's name selected, hit the "Customize..." button. In the Customize dialog box, switch to the "Toolbars" tab

Draw is now in a special mode. All the toolbars and toolbar buttons can be moved around and changed in almost any way. On the left hand side of the dialog box, you will see a categorized list of all the commands that can be added to a toolbar.

The next step is to find the interface commands we want and literally drag them onto the new toolbar. We will add the commands "Snap to Grid," "Snap to Guidelines" and "Snap to Objects" to the Snaps toolbar.

Drag each command to the new toolbar
Expand the "File & Layout" category and select "Grid, Guidelines & Snap." Notice the set of buttons that appears in the right-hand side of the dialog box. These buttons can be dragged onto your custom toolbar. Select the one for "Snap to Grid." Drag it to your new toolbar to add it. Do the same for the "Snap to Guidelines" and "Snap to Objects" buttons. You might also want to add the "Snap to None" button. When you are finished, click OK.

Using your new toolbar
Here's what the Snaps toolbar you just created should look like: All the buttons on this toolbar operate on toggle functions. In other words, each button tells a snap option to be 'on' or 'off.' So the nice thing about this toolbar is that it will always show you what the current snap status is... at a glance! Drag this toolbar anywhere you need it and you'll have the snap commands and their current statuses at you fingertips.

Customize further
This toolbar works great, but the images are a little cryptic. Wouldn't it be nice if these buttons could have different images? What about a message instead of a picture?

Once again, you can put Draw's powerful user interface to work for you. You've seen how to customize your own toolbars. Now learn how to customize each button!

Right-click on the Snaps toolbar and choose "Customize..." (just like we did before). For each button in the toolbar, right-click it to change its "properties."With this dialog box, you can fine-tune the look of any toolbar button in the Draw interface. In our case, it might be nice if each button just said what it does. Click "Show text" at the top of the dialog box to make the button do this automatically. Draw suggests a title based on the command to which the button is mapped. Since we already know these buttons relate to snap modes, we'll just shorten the text to "Grid," "Guides" and "Objects." The last button, with its international 'no' symbol, is pretty easy to understand. We can leave it alone.

You can also rearrange the order of the buttons.

Advantages
More Efficient Workspace
Who is better qualified for making a user interface than you? The type of projects you work on will clearly dictate which tools and commands you need to quickly access. Create different toolbars and put groups of tools in them that you use for different projects. That way you can show or hide the tools you need (or don't need) most.

Increase the Drawing Area by Docking Toolbars on the Side
Since most monitors a landscape-oriented, there is much more interface space on the sides than on the top and bottom. If you work primarily on portrait drawings, consider docking your color palette to the side, as well. You won't loose as much editable area this way. You will then be able to see more of your drawing at one time
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Other considerations
Toolbars docked vertically don't always behave the same way as those docked horizontally. Test your toolbar to make sure it's useful where you docked it.

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