Skip to main content
Participant
August 14, 2025
Answered

New shortcut

  • August 14, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 249 views

Greetings!

In the latest Adobe Illustrator update, a new feature was added: Recent Colors.
Couldn't this feature be optional? That is, couldn't it be turned on or off through the Swatches palette menu?

I'll leave two other suggestions that I consider important:

1. A keyboard shortcut for the Swatches palette. I've been using Illustrator for decades and have always missed this shortcut. How useful it would be! (It could be a variation of the Colors shortcut, for example, Option/Alt + F6)

2. A shortcut for Group Selection (white arrow +). I often edit vectors with this tool, much more than with Direct Selection (white arrow, shortcut A). It could also be a variation of the Direct Selection shortcut, for example, Command/Ctrl + Option/Alt + A.

Correct answer Kurt Gold

As for your other questions:

 

You can create custom keyboard shortcuts to open the Swatches panel and call the Group Selection tool.

 

Edit menu > Keyboard Shortcuts ...

2 replies

Kurt Gold
Community Expert
Kurt GoldCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 14, 2025

As for your other questions:

 

You can create custom keyboard shortcuts to open the Swatches panel and call the Group Selection tool.

 

Edit menu > Keyboard Shortcuts ...

Participant
August 15, 2025

Thank you so much, Kurt!
Your suggestion is really great!
The downside to this approach is that it's not a "universal" shortcut that you'll find in any Illustrator (I mean, no matter what computer you're using Illustrator on, the shortcut is common, a "default" like all the other shortcuts we use daily (V, A, B, C, M, P, L, F6, Comm/Ctrl+7, Comm/Ctrl+8...). For example, I work at a publishing company where there are several computers with Illustrator installed. Customizing each machine doesn't seem like a good approach, and I couldn't do it because it would go against a company policy, not customizing the programs.

 

Thank you very much, I followed your suggestion in Illustrator which I use at home.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 14, 2025

You *can* turn it off in the menu of the swatches panel.

Participant
August 15, 2025

Thank you so much, Monika!
This option escaped me in my search. I couldn't believe it!