AI CS6 took away the Opacity sliders

[John Stanowski]

I just discovered to my horror that there are no opacity sliders in Illustrator CS6.

Seems like the program is going backwards now. Whatever.

[DavidVaseekaran]

Okay, so I wasn't hallucinating... I knew I had written about it: http://helpx.adobe.com/content/help/en/illustrator/using/ui-interface.html.

I'll have to find a way to make this information more discoverable. In any case, the list that John talked about is in the making, and will be useful to have. Will keep you posted on that! Please keep the feedback coming, guys!

Thanks,

David

[DavidVaseekaran]

Ivan David wrote:

... the list that John talked about is in the making, and will be useful to have. Will keep you posted on that! Please keep the feedback coming, guys!

Hi,

While the comprehensive list of feautures is still being compiled, here is a blog post on the missing sliders, and the new way of working faster by just scrolling on your mouse: http://blogs.adobe.com/ivandavid/illustrator-cs6-use-your-mouse-to-work-faster/.

Cheers,

David

[Guest]

I stopped drawing in Illustrator with a mouse years before they even thought of adding a wheel to them.

Am I the only one here that is super-frustrated that the slider is gone?

Nothing beat the ability to drag that thing and watch your live preview.

How is removing this considered an 'improvement'???

[emil_emil]

jeffermac wrote:

I stopped drawing in Illustrator with a mouse years before they even thought of adding a wheel to them.

me too

jeffermac wrote:

...

Nothing beat the ability to drag that thing and watch your live preview.

...

As I said before, the slider never gave live preview and as such was useless for me. It only updates the screen redraw after releasing the mouse which is not much different from the effort of typing the value  - the effort with using the slider is described well in the blog link:

1. Select the object, and click the arrow of the Opacity field in the Control Panel
2. Click and hold the Opacity slider control, move the slider, and release slider to view the new opacity of the object
3. If the opacity is not exactly the one you need, repeat the previous step until you get the right opacity.

Typing a trial and error values is not more effort, at least for me, and gives the same interactivity - no live preview. Again using the up/down arrows on the keyboard when the transparency value is selected gives live preview and holding the Shift key, increases the increments, at least for me this remains the best way so far.

[Guest]

Yes, my bad. But imho, anything that requires more effort is a step backwards in user experience. Placing your pen on the slider and drag-lift, drag-lift is as close to a live preview as anything. No need to get your 'keyboard' hand involved, superfast previews.

I shouldn't have to start using more keys to get back functionality that required less. Trying to say that using more keys or adding more steps to an existing method is an improvement defies logic - at least in the realm of user experience.

I do ultra-detailed realistic drawings in Illustrator. And despite how much I like most of the 'improvements' in AI6, I'm keeping it's predecessor installed and foregoing updating the balance of the 35 licenses to CS6 in my dept. Why? Because my sampling of 20 artists came back with exactly the same criticism - yes, all 20 of them! And no amount of 'extra steps are just as easy' will change the fact that everyone agreed it was an incumberance at a very significant level.

To all that think this is an improvement: good on ya!!! To those who miss this feature: I hear ya.

[emil_emil]

As I said, I agree that options like that should not be removed when new options added do not fully cover the previous experience. Once people get used to something, they still could be faster with it even after a new faster feature is added but requires change of habits which may take a long period to adjust and for some users it may never feel  equally intuitive.

[_scott_]

With a stylus the mouse wheel trick is more cumbersome, not really helpful. I can use the touch ring on the tablet, but that means I have to lift the stylus up, away, from the tablet so the cursor stays in position while I move to the ring. I just want sliders back at some point

[PECourtejoie]

Getting scrubby sliders like Photoshop's would be useful for stylus users, and help cross-program learners.

But this is the first step in the new Illustrator UI, akin to foundations works, so I hope that we can expect more to come in the future

[John Stanowski]

Has anything ever come of that list for new stuff and changes in CS6?

[Adam Wilbert]

Nobody mentioned the fact that the command key (mac, I assume ctrl on PC) will increment the mouse-wheel by .1 for fields that allow decimals. Stroke width, scale, round corners effect etc.

It has been mentioned that the shift key increases the steps to 10 (for most numeric fields) but I'm finding a very strange behavior on my mac (snow leopard). The shift key increases the steps, but it also reverses the direction of the change. For instance, if I'm adjusting opacity by scrolling back (mouse wheel towards me) the numbers step down 100, 99, 98... Then I add shift thinking I'll jump down to 80, 70... but it doesn't. It goes back up to 100. I have to press shift and scroll up (away from me) to continue down in 10s. Thats wonky. Is it the same for everyone else?

[bluefire777]

Yes I`m getting the same, the shift key jumps by 10 but again in the opposite direction to what your doing. using arrow keys with shift keeps it in the right direction,

thanks for the CMMD .1 incriment tip.

[wgzn]

the mouse wheel thing is great. but not as responsive as a slider. and that arrow thing is screaming joke. i can move a slider with my mouse from 100 to 3 in about a quarter of a second. why in the hell would i want to highlight it then use a whole other input device - ludicrous!

ive been using illustrator since version 1 and it gauls the living daylights out of me that theyd take a feature they had. that made sense and simply remove it. are they going to remove the slider from photoshop as well? it does the exact same thing. why would it be there in photoshop and NOT in illustrator of the same release version.

from where i sit, if this as well as the new subscription only CC thing are the shape of things to come. im just going to cancel my subscription and sit comfortably with my CS4 master collection discs and get back to being productive.

[emil_emil]

John Stanowski wrote:

... Why in the world don't you publish this stuff? Every time I searched for information on what is new in CS6 all I get is the same old stuff: pattern maker, gradients on strokes and stuff aimed at new users...

But this is nothing new, at least on a pc. Changing values in input fields with up/down arrows and the scroll wheel of the mouse can be used in input fields in most programs on Windows, and this has been like that all the time. It will look funny for the Windows users if Adobe publish this as a new feature.

I prefer the up/down arrows because I'm using a Wacom pen and also I can use the Shift key to speed up the change using higher increments in input fields that take use of the Shift key.

[Guest]

I have been scouring the web in search of fresh new Adobe Illustrator CS6 tutorials for you to try out.

[angry-guy]

you incompetent people aren't improving anything.

you are developing backwards.

why are you taking something away? can't you just leave it and add what you want to add (mouse scroll to change values).

and by the way: in this business of creative work there are a lot of people that use graphic tablets. have you ever seen a digital pen with a scroll wheel?

DO YOUR WORK PROPERLY IF WE SHOVE YOU THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS/EUROS DOWN YOUR THROAT.

because only if you do, so can i with this software

[Graphic Squirrel]

Who thought removing the sliders was a good idea????  Seriously???  That was a really stupid thing to do. 

So now that I'm forced to use the wheel rather than the slider, can someone tell me how to get increments other than those listed in the drop down?  Surely Adobe doesn't think that we all want only the ones they have listed.  When I roll the wheel, though, it only jumps by those specific numbers.  I'd like 25%, but only 20 and 30 are listed.  Is there a way to get a more specific number other than actually having to type it in? 

Thanks for any help. 

[emil_emil]

Frank Heller wrote:

...again, you missed my point. If you are disabled....you may find the mouse more convenient as primary input for most operations.
... Removing this functionality becomes an inconvenience for those who are "mouse-centric".

...

There was no reason to remove this full range functionality and replace it with a "multiple choice" interface that requires further tweaking to get at the "tweener" numbers.

Of course, if  you want to use the mouse only and using the keyboard is harder for your then yes, it will not be as easy. My initial reply to you was based on the fact that you will need one hand anyway regardless if you are using the slider or the arrow keys.

And as I already said earlier, Adobe should not remove features like that, the slider doesn't do any harm to those who don't use it.

[Guest]

This was THE first thing I noticed when I started getting into AI6. It baffles me that they did this. Any artist worth their weight will be absolutely appalled at the missing sliders, and for good reason. And using the mouse wheel to scroll is a great addition - for artists that draw un-intuitively with a mouse, but what about the pile of artists that use tablets???

C'mon, Adobe. Start sending your Beta's to high end artists for feedback and blatant faux pas's like this will never be made.

I'll stick with 5.5 til they fix this, thanks.

[uni_splet]

Well i see that the arrows are better.

[An Elephant]

I find AE's drag control is the most comfortable way to do it, I don't know why it's not implemented.

[Temakixai]

Okay i really need to go against every other post i've skimmed in this conversation.
i LOVE the intervals. I'm a vector artist, and let me tell you, i was so delighted that CS6 changed the old slider to these percentage intervals. it made things so much more efficient.
Say i make a picture, and i'm doing shading and i need to have a lot of objects with a lowered opacity. but they all need to be the same. I don't want some specific number, with the intervals I can just select 20%, "no, too light", select 30%, "okay that's good".
i don't want to have to move the slider very carefully down and get it on EXACTLY 30, i don't need 31, i don't need 29, i need a straight simple number.. and i certainly don't want to be selecting the box and then typing in 30. or whatever number i'm going for.
I don't need things to be precise, I need things to be efficient and time saving.
And with gradients. why on earth would I, say, want a point in the gradient to be at something like 51.234%? i want it at *50*. with the intervals it saves so much time cus you can jsut go click click, click click, and everything's exactly where it is. and of course if you NEED somethign spicific, you can still type the number in.

In CC they've taken out the intervals that I thought were so much more efficient and moved it back to the slider. I just got to the point of the shading in a picture i'm doing and i flat out refuse to go around wasting time dragging a slider to a nitpicky position.
I would like to know if it is possible to change it BACK to the percentage intervals on the creative cloud products

As some people so obviously prefer the slider, they shouldn't just have one or the other, it should be an option to set it to which you prefer.
This will save me a few hours of time on my pictures. could anyone help?
*lost in the vast maze that is the preferences window*