Appearance Panel

[LePardine]

Why can't I see the selected object in the Appearance Panel?  It was there earlier~then I did a freelance job and now it only reads as a tiny box.  I rely on this picture to help me navigate a sophisticated building of a color base (in this case, golden yellow), then a multiply object (shadow), then a screen object (highlight) to swap colors for another character color option.  How can I get that shape back into the Path window?  Thanks~

[Ton Frederiks]

Maybe you are confusing this with the Layers Panel?

[LePardine]

Nope; definitely not confusing it with the Layers panel; altho I use that quite often also.

During the winter months I've relied on the thumbnail of the object selected to appear in the Appearance panel to check to see if I have selected the color base object, or the multiply or screen object.  There should be a thumbnail of that selected shape; now all I get is a tiny box which is hard to see what is selected now~where did that thumbnail go?

Thanks~

[Ton Frederiks]

I can see a very tiny preview when effects are applied, but generally too tiny to make sense.

The selected object and the info in the appearance panel makes more sense.

[LePardine]

That's what I am saying.  The tiny preview used to be a bigger version but had a thumbnail of the object selected~this way I can tell which object I selected~the base, or the darken or the or screen object since they are all copies of the original shape.  What happened to that thumbnail and how can I get it back?

[Monika Gause]

I can't see a difference between CS5 and CC here:

[rcraighead · Accepted solution]

Appearance Panel does not show a preview of the selected artwork, only a rectangle with the current attributes applied.

Try the "Transparency" panel (Show Option) to get a preview of the selection.

[LePardine]

Ok~I just have to rely on the "Transparency" panel now~argh...thanks~

[LePardine]

Thank you, everyone, for replying so quickly~

It may have been the "Transparency" panel that I have been relying on instead of the "Appearance" box.  But I could have sworn it was the Appearance~I had just proudly showed the X how powerful a tool that the "Appearance" panel is a few days back.

Have a wonderful day and weekend, everyone!  It's actually raining a little here in Southern California today!  Yay!

Kimberly