Custom Shortcuts in Adobe Illustrator

Most of the products and services today are computer-aided. As a result, you need to keep squeezing your delivery deadlines. Keyboard shortcuts help you a lot in increasing your productivity. Designers can reduce the time consumed in toggling between menu options and tools with the help of keyboard shortcuts. You can find a few pre-defined Adobe Illustrator shortcuts but can create many custom shortcuts in Illustrator. We will explore further how to create custom shortcuts in Illustrator.

How to create custom shortcuts in Adobe Illustrator

Open Adobe Illustrator and go to the Edit menu. Thereafter, search for the Keyboard Shortcuts option or use the shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+K on Windows or Shift+Command+Option+K on macOS. This will subsequently open a dialogue box named Keyboard Shortcuts.

The Set menu appears across the top on the Keyboard Shortcuts. You can see a list of all available shortcut sets in the Set menu. Illustrator Defaults is the default set of Adobe Illustrator shortcuts. The Set menu shows Illustrator Defaults set along with all other available custom sets. Choose any of the available custom sets or click on Custom to create your new set of custom shortcuts in Illustrator. Save the new set. It will be added to the Set menu.

Let us observe the Keyboard Shortcuts dialogue box further to understand Adobe Illustrator’s shortcuts better.

“Keyboard Shortcuts” dialogue box

Selecting a menu or tool option

You can see a dropdown below the Set menu containing two instructions: Menu Commands and Tools.

Menu Command allows you to create custom shortcuts for options in the menu bar and panel menus of Adobe Illustrator.

Tools option lets you create shortcuts for tools in the toolbox.

For more information on Menu Commands and Tools, follow the link https://helpx.adobe.com/lv/illustrator/user-guide.html/lv/illustrator/using/tool-galleries.ug.html

After selecting  Menu Command or Tools, you will find a list below. This list lets you know different shortcuts that already exist. You can find your desired menu or tool and assign custom shortcuts by simply typing in the keys sequentially

Note: The set Illustrator Defaults contains default Adobe Illustrator shortcuts and is not editable. If you try to assign your custom shortcut, the Set menu will automatically go to the Custom option.

Conflicting cases and resolution

Illustrator prevents repetition of a shortcut combination. You will see an error notification if there is a conflict. A conflicting situation is a combination of shortcut keys being the same as a previously defined shortcut.

You can reassign the combination of shortcuts by clicking the Undo option across the bottom of the dialogue box. Then type in a new shortcut combination, check for an error message, and save the settings.

You can change the previously defined command as well by clicking on the Go To Conflict option.

Saving, Clearing, and Deleting Adobe Illustrator Shortcuts

Activate a set of keyboard shortcuts from the Set menu. After that, select the required set of keyboard shortcuts and click “OK”.

You can remove the shortcut(s) within a set using the Clear option. Further, the changes need to be saved by clicking the save icon beside the Set menu.

To delete a set, select the set from the Set menu and click the delete icon beside. Hit “OK” in the dialogue box to delete the selected Adobe Illustrator shortcut set.

The custom keyboard shortcuts are saved by default in the following locations:

In Windows:

• rootdir>\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator
• CC Settings\[language]\mycustomshortcut.kys

In macOS:

• user/Library/Preferences/Illustrator CC Settings/[language]/mycustomshortcut.kys

How to export custom shortcuts in Illustrator

You can also export a custom set of Adobe Illustrator shortcuts using the Export Text option. Subsequently, you can see a Save Key Set File As a dialogue box. Enter a filename for the keyboard shortcut and click Save. This saves your shortcut set in “.kys” format. Later you can use this text file to print out a copy of your keyboard shortcuts. Keep it handy to improve your productivity.

Summary

Let us summarize the Keyboard Shortcuts dialogue box and the steps to create custom shortcuts in Illustrator.

• Select from the list of all available keyboard shortcuts in the Set menu.
• Thereafter select either Menu Commands or Tools.
• Next, find your required menu, panel, or tool from the list.
• Assign keyboard shortcuts and check for any error message.
• In case no error is found, save the file, or else,
• Resolve the error through Undo or Go To Conflict options and then save the file.
• Convert the file into text format with the Export Text option.

Conclusion

You have almost learned everything on how to create custom shortcuts in Illustrator. Keep learning default Adobe Illustrator shortcuts and keep experimenting with custom shortcuts in Illustrator. If you can imagine something, you can create it too. Have fun and create something incredible.

Check out our Blog for more Illustrator tips, tricks, and scripts.