Creating Custom Shelves and Menus

Lets you create or change custom shelves of tools and menu items that you can repeatedly use in a specific order.

Overview

For information on shelves, see Using the Tool Palette and the Shelf on page 23.

If you regularly use the same sets of tools and menu items in the same order, you can simplify your workflow by setting up shelves that contain these tools and menu items in the order you use them.

The Command stepper lets you proceed through the set of commands in forward or backward order, restarting whenever you want.

How to Use

Select Preferences > Command stepper menu > Edit command set, or click its icon.

The Command Stepper shelf is displayed:

Command Stepper Options Menu

Click the options button in the Command stepper. The options menu appears.

New shelf

The New Shelf option lets you create a different tab for each series of commands that you use.

1

Select New shelf to create a new tab in the Command Stepper shelf. The following dialog box is displayed:

2

To assign a name for the new shelf, double-click in the Shelf Name box to highlight the text, type the name you want to appear on the tab, then click OK.

3

The new tab is displayed in the Command Stepper shelf:

4

Fill the new shelf with tool and menu command icons as you normally fill the shelves.

5

Try to place the tools and menu commands in the sequence you normally use them. The first item in the sequence is at the far left and the last is at the far right.

Renaming an Existing Shelf

To rename an existing shelf:

1

Double-click the shelf tab.

2

In the dialog box that is displayed, highlight the existing text, type the new name for the shelf in the Shelf Name box, then click OK.

• The tab is renamed in the shelf.

Save shelf set

To save a customized shelf under a different name, select Save shelf set from the options menu.

Type the name of the shelf set in the File box and click the Save Shelf Set button.

Replace shelf set

To replace the current shelf set with one of the customized shelves you have saved, select Replace shelf set from the options menu. The following File Requestor is displayed:

Type the name of the shelf set that you are retrieving in the File box and click the Replace Shelf Set button.

Moving Icons in the Command Stepper Shelf

The Edit command set function can also be used to edit existing Command Stepper shelves.

Once you have placed the icons in the new Command Stepper tab, position them in the sequence that you typically use them so that you can step through them whenever you want.

The following series of pictures shows how to move icons.

Example

1

Assume the original icon layout is as follows:

2

Click-drag with the middle mouse button. The name of the tool is displayed.

3

To place the icon at the end of the row, release the mouse while positioned over the empty space.

4

To move the icon before or after another tool, click-drag the icon and release the mouse when positioned on top of the icon you want to move to.

5

Once you have created the shelf, you can step through it with the following menu choices:

• To step forward, select Preferences > Command Stepper > Step forward. (See Stepping Forward through the Command Stepper on page 571.)

• To step backward, select Preferences > Command Stepper > Step backward. (See Stepping Backward through the Command Stepper on page 573.)

• To stop the command sequence and return to the beginning, select Preferences > Command Stepper > Restart. (See Restarting the Command Sequence on page 575.)

Notes

• The position of a sequence is preserved when you have multiple tabs. This means that when you switch to a different tab, you can return to where you were in the previous tab.

• If the shelf is in vertical layout mode, only one stepper tab sequence can be active.

• Mousing down and selecting icons in the Command Stepper shelf makes this the current position in the sequence.