Operation Manual

Setting preferences
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About preferences
Setting Illustrator preferences
About plug-in modules
About preferences
Preferences are options regarding how you want Illustrator to work, including those for display, tools, ruler units, and exporting information. Your
preferences are saved in a file called AIPrefs (Windows) or Adobe Illustrator Prefs (Mac OS), which is launched each time you start Illustrator.
Open a preferences dialog box
1. Do one of the following:
(Windows) Choose Edit > Preferences > [preference set name].
(Mac OS) Choose Illustrator > Preferences > [preference set name].
With nothing selected, click the Preferences button on the Control panel.
2. To switch to a different preference set, do one of the following:
Select an option from the menu at the upper-left of the Preferences dialog box.
Click Next to display the next options, or click Prev to display the previous options.
Reset all preferences to default settings
Resetting preferences can be helpful if you are having problems with the application.
Do one of the following:
Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Illustrator. Your current settings are deleted.
Remove or rename the AIPrefs file (Windows) or Adobe Illustrator Prefs file (Mac OS). New preferences files are created the next time you
start Illustrator.
Note: It is safe to remove the entire Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings folder. This folder contains various preferences that can be regenerated.
Setting Illustrator preferences
The Illustrator preferences file manages the commands and panel settings in Illustrator. When you open Illustrator, the positioning of panels and
commands are stored in the Illustrator preferences file. If you want to restore the default settings for Illustrator or change the current settings,
delete the Illustrator preferences. Illustrator automatically creates a preference file, when you restart Illustrator and save a file.
Depending on the operating system that you are using, the Illustrator preferences file is available at the following location:
Note: The folder name may vary depending on the language version you have installed.
Mac OS X
<startup drive>/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings/en_US*/Adobe Illustrator
Prefs
Windows XP
<startup drive>\ Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5
Settings\en_US*\AIPrefs
Windows Vista or Windows 7
<startup drive>\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings\en_US*\AIPrefs.
Note: In Windows XP, the Application Data folder is hidden by default. The same is true for the AppData folder in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
To make this folder visible, open Folder Options in Control Panel and click the View tab. In the Advanced Settings pane, select theShow Hidden
Files and Folders or Show hidden files, folders, or drives option.
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