Add menu items and tools to custom panels
It's great to make custom toolbars, but what I really need is to create PANELS with toolbar buttons. Then I can dock them, make them retract automatically, etc., just like any other panel.
This way I can produce sets of very specialized panels that snap alongside the related settings panels.
It's not visually helpful to be forced to keep ALL tools in just one or two columns! There is no user-based reason that a toolbar can't be made square, or docked with the other panels.
Of course, ultimately I just want a very easy, drag/drop way to make custom panels that include tools, Actions, etc.
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Ray Reed commented
An admin answered me back and said "tool panel" was the wrong terminology, so maybe I'm referring to a "command panel". I really don't care what it's called, just a row of buttons at the top like most Windows apps that has "New File, Open File, Save File, Save As, etc. I'm really tired of having to pull down the menus every 3 minutes (I've done a lot of artwork every day for 15 years), and, the hot keys are too far apart so it takes 2 hands (I have to take my hand off the mouse to do those hot keys). The admin also mentioned the Button Mode in Actions Panel.... I played around with this and recorded several actions, and it's a little quirky. The commands don't always work the same when they are in Button Mode (try Save As). It's too complicated and quirky. Simple is soooo much better.
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I wouldn’t call it a 'tool' panel, since, it would contain no tools, but commands...
So do you men to just get an unfolded duplicate of the File menu as a panel, or a fully customizable panel with command as buttons? Are you aware of the Button Mode for Actions panel? I think it just does what you need. -
Ray Reed commented
I'd like to see a panel at the top with buttons such as: New File, Open File, Save File, Save As, etc. It takes 2 hands to do the hot keys, and therefore slows me down... A panel like this would greatly increase my productivity.
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Mike D commented
The new ability to make a custom toolbar is great, but it's limited to existing tools only. It'd be great to be able to add items from the menus that are sometimes buried several clicks in - such as Select Same Appearance, Outline Stroke, etc.
I guess they'd need custom icons - maybe they could use user-defined text labels or acronyms (eg: SSA) as a quick default, and you could allow users to also create their own icons for use.
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Pratap Mistry commented
The custom toolbar feature is very limited in illustrator. We cannot add our own desired command. Every command is hidden some where in the menu bar. Which slows down the production process and i personally hate it very much. As a artist we have to learn many software packages. We simply cannot keep remembering every keyboard shortcuts while switching between different software packages. It confuses us very much.
Autodesk Maya and 3ds max has a great features which allows to add any commands from the menu bar that the artist like to use by creating a new custom shelf. And also has many other additional features such as
1) giving custom names for shelf or toolbar
2) loading any previous saved shelf
3) choosing custom icons for commands
4) choosing custom text, color and its background color
and many many more..... -
Allen commented
This could also be entitled: Make Custom Panels with Toolbar Buttons.