My Favorite Icons

by | May 28, 2008 | Toolbars

Customizing your toolbar is a way to make your KNK Studio experience even better. I have several functions that I like having readily available, but be sure to think about what YOU might find handy, rather than just copying my list. Further, my list are all functions that are NOT already available in other toolbars, however YOU might prefer to create a single toolbar that contains those icons from the other toobars that you use most often so that you only have a single toolbar on your entire KNK Studio screen. This will reduce clutter and provide a larger working area for you to view your images.

Before listing my favorites, note the procedure for creating a customized toolbar:

  1. Go to View>Toolbars>Customize. Note that at the bottom of the popup window, you can check a box to make all of your icons larger. I have this checked primarily because I want them to stand out in my videos. But it’s also nice for anyone who strains to see the icons on the screen.

  2. Click on New and give your toolbar a name. Click on OK.

  3. A new window will open and you will see all available icons on the left side. Simply pick an icon and click on Add. The icon will be added to the right side. If you change your mind, select it on the right side and click on Remove.

  4. You can add pale gray divider lines by clicking on Separator at the top of the list and adding.

  5. You can change the order of our icons by selecting one on the right and then clicking on either Move Up or Move Down to change its relative location.

  6. When you are done adding icons, click on Close, make sure your new toolbar is checked and then click on Close again. Your new toolbar will appear at the top of the screen and can be moved to your preferred location.

  7. Finally… and this is VERY important: go to View>Toolbars>Save and save your current configuration. Customized toolbar setups have been known to suddenly vanish and need to be recreated! But if you have saved your configuration then you can go to View>Toolbars>Load to retrieve it in case this happens.

And now for my favorites:

  • Remove All Guides: a quick way to delete all guidelines in one click
  • Convert to Polyarc: I love the editing functions in Polyarc mode and find myself converting to polyarc frequently.
  • Contour Object: another way to create an outline mat: this one has the ability to ignore the interior parts of letters in a title.
  • Outline: the other way to create an outline mat: I keep this one handy since it can create multiple outlines, as well as inlines.
  • Zoom to Selected Object: absolutely essential for any kind of editing… you always want to zoom in on your individual objects.
  • Zoom to Sign Blank: also essential so that you can quickly go back to see your entire document area.
  • Notes: I tend to use this rather frequently in tutorials and videos, so it’s nice to have it right there on a toolbar.

Again, it’s up to YOU to figure out what you most need in your toolbars. And don’t forget to save it once you create it. 🙂