What happened to bar across the top?

[madobe1127]

I updated AI a few weeks ago.

What happened to the property bar across the top? Now all windows are on the right side.

But crucial windows are missing. I can't even find where to change the point width of a stroke!

I'd like to know

(1) ideally how I can make it look like it did before, with lots of appearance options across the top of the window (none of the workspace options seems to do this)

(2) at least how I can dock panes along the top manually

(3) and at the very least, where is the pane for changing the width of a stroke?

[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

The control panel (which is what you are referring to) has been replaced in the Essentials default workspace for CC 2018 with the new Properties Panel which can be found (as you said) among the panels on the right side. The Control Panel is still there and can be accessed under the Window menu or by switching your workspace to the Essentials Classic one that you will find under the Workspaces menu.

[madobe1127]

I don't see the control panel in Essentials Classic.

Oh, wait .. I had to do "Reset Essentials Classic" .. now it's there .. that's strange, I don't remember ever changing Essentials Classic. The whole time I've been using AI 2018 I've been looking in vain for the control panel.

Also I just noticed that the helpful vertical strip came back, the one on the right with lots of sub-panels that pop out to the left.

This is just crazy. None of that stuff was there before, even in "Essentials Classic."

The ease of finding options in the control panel and the right side strip was the very reason I was able to learn AI quickly last year. I can't imagine trying to learn AI without those options out in the open, in an easy-to-find way.

[Monika Gause]

Select a different workspace

or

Select Window > Control panel

or

Try if the Properties panel fulfills your need. It has most of the options of the control panel.

[madobe1127]

The properties panel doesn't have one of the most elementary options, the stroke width. At least in whatever workspaces I tried (and I tried many), it didn't.