Activate a tool – Adobe After Effects CS3 User Manual

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AFTER EFFECTS CS3

User Guide

Activate a tool

The Tools panel can be displayed as a toolbar (as shown here) or as a normal panel.

Tools panel

A. Selection B. Hand C. Zoom D. Rotation E. Orbit Camera, Track XY Camera, Track Z Camera F. Pan Behind G. Mask and shape tools

H. Pen tools I. Type tools J. Brush K. Clone Stamp L. Eraser M. Puppet tools N. Controls related to active tool

Note: Controls related to some tools appear only when the tool is active.

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Click the tool’s button. If the button has a small triangle at its lower-right corner, hold down the mouse button to
view the hidden tools. Then, click the tool you want to select.

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Press the tool’s keyboard shortcut. (Positioning the pointer over a tool button displays a tool tip with the tool’s
name and keyboard shortcut.)

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To cycle through hidden tools, repeatedly press the tool’s keyboard shortcut.

•

To momentarily change from one tool to another tool, hold down the shortcut key for the desired tool; release the
shortcut key to return to the previous tool. (This technique does not work with all tools.)

•

To view panels most relevant to the active tool, click the panel button

if available. For example, clicking this

button when a paint tool is active opens the Paint and Brush Tips panels.

Tips for working with the After Effects user interface

•

Use ClearType text anti-aliasing on Windows. ClearType makes the outlines of system text, such as menus and
dialog boxes, easier to read. See Windows Help for information on how to enable ClearType text anti-aliasing.

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To show tool tips, select the Show Tool Tips preference (Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects >
Preferences > General (Mac OS)).

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To assign a keyboard shortcut to the current workspace, choose Window > Assign Shortcut To [Workspace Name]
Workspace.

•

If a frame contains more grouped panels than can be shown at once, drag the slider bar that appears above the tabs.

Slider bar for showing other tabs

•

Use keyboard shortcuts.

Note: On Mac OS, some keyboard commands for interacting with the operating system conflict with keyboard
commands for interacting with After Effects. Select Use System Shortcut Keys in the General preferences category to
override the After Effects keyboard command in cases in which there's a conflict with the Mac OS keyboard command.

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