Drop Down Menu in Illustrator

[iamsean]

Drop Down Menu in Illustrator...

Is it possible to create a drop down menu in Adobe Illustrator???

I work for a company that make clothes.  We make technical flat drawings that also need to show trim items, but I need the trim items in a specific order and not all garments require the same trims.  It would be great if I could create a drop down menu where I could choose the multiple specifc trim items but not all that are in a garment.  Some kind pull down menu would be great...is anything like that possible??

[Monika Gause]

Please see this
Re: How to create dropdown with expand options?

[Michael Riordan]

It sounds like you want a collection of text items (trim sizes) and maybe lines that you can quickly and easily select and apply to your drawings. If that is correct, no, you can’t alter Illustrator’s UI but yes, you can create and save elements to be reused later. You can use CC libraries for this or you can create and save a custom set of symbols. Then you just click and drag your pre-made trim elements onto the drawing.

Hope that helps

Michael Riordan

Owner/Adobe Certified Instructor

Digital DesignLab

Oak Park, IL

http://www.learnadobesoftware.com

[iamsean]

Yes it would be a series of text that someone could choose like:

One set of "trim text" to choose from a text list of things like, Zippers, Mesh, Neck Tape, Binding

And another set of "color text" to choose from like, Blue, Red, Orange, Tan

So imagine a simple drawing of a zippered hoody with some text just below it...

The trim text would be below the drawing just to the left of it and the color text would be directly below the text and a person from the "color team" would choose from a pre-made list of trims and it would appear where the "trim text" is and a pre made list of colors would appear where the "color text "would be below the drawings.

Can a drop down list be imported from another program into Illustrator and do the same thing????

Thanks so much to all who comment it is much appreciated

[Michael Riordan]

Ahh. It sounds like you want the same experience as you might get when shopping for clothing online. So you want an interactive Illustration with selectable/changeable text options on the art board. No, that’s not possible in Illustrator.

[iamsean]

Do you know if an Excel file or anything similar with that kind of interactive Illustration with selectable/changeable text options on the art board can be imported into Illustrator?  Do you know if there is there any program available to use that has those kinds of capabilities?

[Monika Gause]

You can build the artwork in Illustrator.

Then use some kind of scripting to present the artwork.

Inside Illustrator you could use symbols or graphic styles to change artwork.

Please tell us more about what you need this for and tell us your background in Illustrator.

Then a moe detailed answer is possible.

And please read the thread I linked. Or is that your thread?

[iamsean]

Thank you so much for your help, here is what we currently do, the text is just written in Illustrator. The text below (left) is what trims are in the garment and the text right under the garment are colors for the trims. Currently designers use whatever text they want to call the trim callout so we want a way for the designers to pick from a list of trims and it would fill in the trim text for each trim piece and for the designer to be able to pick a color for that trim from a color list.

I am pretty savy with Illustrator but unfamiliar with Animiate CC

Yes, that is my original thread and question, thanks so much for your comments and any help on this would greatly appreciated

Here is a screen capture of the need

Sean

[Monika Gause]

So you want to create AI files, but want to limit your designers' choices of text and color?

Why not hand them a template with swatches and symbols (that contain the text)?

[iamsean]

Yes, they do get a swatch palette, but they have to currently fill type in the color text. They ALL know that they are suppose to write the correct color name, but they will constantly write things like “Navy” instead of the full word “Navy Blue” and “Forge” instead of “Forge Grey” . So if they had something to pull from like a drop down menu the correct spelling and full name would be there.

Also the designers are supposed to also use specific words for trims, but they constantly do the same thing as mentioned above… They would write “Zipper” instead of “Center Front Zipper”. When they don’t fill in the fill name, it is hard for people to know what the work “Zipper” means, as a garment may have pocket zippers or cell phone zippers as well. So when they write “Zipper” no one is sure what zipper they are exactly referring to.

I am not sure what you mean by template with swatches and symbols (that contain the text). They do get an ASE color palette and basic template for the drawing to exist it. Could you elaborate?

Again thank you so much for your help

Sean

[Monika Gause]

If they get a swatches palette then where do they need to write the name of the color? It's supposed to be in the swatches options.

Please elaborate.

But I fear you will either need to further educate your artists or have someone develop a plugin to suit your needs.

[iamsean]

They currently have to type in the text below the drawing, they know they are supposed to write the correct name that appears in the swatch palette, but don’t always for some reason. They use the swatch palette to fill the drawings with color.

Do you know of anyone that develops Adobe Illustrator Plugins?

Sean

[Monika Gause]

You might ask in the SDK forum. That's the place where the plugin developers discuss issues with the SDK. So you'll find developers there.

Illustrator SDK

Then there are:

Graffix plugins for Adobe Illustrator

Amazon Canvas | ArtBlue

Plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator - Macintosh  (Mac OS plugins)

[iamsean]

Thank you so much for all your help

Sean

[Monika Gause]

You're welcome. Hope you'll find someone who can solve this for you.

[Michael Riordan]

Sean-

Based on everything you’ve written I really think you can get close to what you want from the symbols panel or the Libraries Panel.

If you create the elements that you want the designers to use and store them in one of those panels, all that the designers would need to do is drag from a list of options in those panels to a spot on the art board. Both symbols and libraries can be shared with other users. Text, graphics, or a combination of text and graphics (like a little color square with the words "Navy Blue” next to it) call all be saved simply by dragging the items into the symbols panel or into the libraries panel.

The problem of getting your designers to use the right colors, labels and names would be solved, and it would be faster since they only have to drag out the right item (no typing!).

[iamsean]

I think I understand what you are saying about making the text into symbols, but I feel that the folks dragging the “text symbols” the people dragging the info below the drawings would not pay attention to alignment and leading I think they would just drag and drop randomly. The text below the drawing is used for other purposes where leading, spacing and alignment are critical. Is there a way to make sure that they align and are spaced correctly when they drag the “text symbols” into the file. Here is a sample of how the text below the drawings is laid out.

Thanks again for all you help with this.

Sean

[Michael Riordan]

Sean your screen captures are not coming through. Can you post them directly on the forum?

[iamsean]

Here is a sample of the layout and how the text is laid out

[Myra Ferguson]

Is this same layout used for all of your technical drawings? If so, you could set guides for where you want the artwork placed and where the text should be and then Save as Template... The designers would need to open that template to do their layouts. That will get you to a point where the designers could align main parts, but it won't help you with the leading or font. And if you save the text for your color names to your Library, they'll be saved as artwork and not editable text. So then you wouldn't be able to apply Character styles. So what you could do is save the text they're supposed to use as a .txt file which can then be placed into Illustrator. The Character style can be saved into the Library which they can apply to the text they import.

[Myra Ferguson]

Here are a few options:

1. In Illustrator, you can set the visibility of layers as a view by going to View > New View and you can label that view accordingly. To switch Views you have to go back to the View menu and select which view there.

2. If you wanted to set visibility, move position, and/or change colors (and/or layer style) you could do that in Photoshop with Layer Comps. You'd have to bring the artwork for each Illustrator layer over separately otherwise Photoshop is going to put it all on one layer. To make a layer comp go in Photoshop, go to Window > Layer Comps and create a new layer comp for each view.

3. Import your AI file into Animate CC. It'll put all of your layers on Animate layers (unless you tell it to flatten it). It would be a little more complex of a solution if you're not familiar with Animate, though. Adjust visibility by having or not having keyframes for your various layers. You can make buttons to click and use the Code Snippets to help create Timeline Navigation to go to the various frames where your layers have a keyframe or not. And if you have questions, you can post them to the Animate forum.