Hey guys,

This is the 2nd tutorial on Expression Design and in this one we will work with panels in Expression Design. So without wasting a lot of time let me tell you that Expression Designs interface contains only four panels. Now this is an extremely conservative interface structure and hopefully a welcome change in the world of creative software. Two of the four panels in Expression design are dynamic panels (the action bar and the properties panel) which means that the controls they display are dependent on the selected objects in the document as well as the tools chosen to work with.

A workspace is an onscreen arrangement of panels and Expression design allows you to dock two of the panels (the properties panel and layers panel) to the right side of the screen. You can also expand the dock, hide and show panels, and reposition and resize floating panels. But the tools panel cannot be undocked, resized or repositioned however its use is very intutive bcoz of the tooltips.

View Controls in Action Bar

In the default onscreen panel arrangement the Action bar is open but remains but remains black until you select any item in the document and after making a selection the Action bar displays the current X and Y coordinates for that item as well as its width and height dimentions. There are also controls for rotating and skewing the object when multiple items are selected, the Action bar also displays additional Align, Distribute, Stack and Path controls.

Select any item in the document

1. You can select Action from Window –> Action Bar. A check next to the action bar signifies that the action bar is currently visible. You can also press F3 to quickly hide or show the Action bar. The best thing about Action bar is that the properties it shows are editable.

2. You can select any item in the document with either the Direct selection tool or Selection tool. You can also Shift + Click to select multiple items.

 

Showing and Hiding Panels

Depending upon your requirement you can show or hide one or all panels at a time to concentrate on the artwork.

1. In the Windows Menu you can select Layer (F3), Properties (F4) and Toolbox (F5) to show hide the panels or press tab to hide/show all panels at the sametime.

Resizing the Dock

On the right side of the screen is the dock where the Properties Panel and Layers Panel are stored by default.

Accessing the resize arrows

1. On the right side of your screen, hover the mouse over the left edge of the dock until a double-sided,horizontal arrow appears.

2.Click and drag the title bar at the top of the docked Layers panel up or down to resize it vertically.

Floating Panels

Now while working you might want to see only Properties panel or Layers panel at a time then you can undock one of the panel and make it free floating on the screen.

Click on the float button

1. Click the Float button located in the upper right corner of the properties panel. You can click Float button of multipl docks top make them floating.

2.Click and drag the title bar to reposition the panel wherever you’d like.

Docking Panel

You can click the Dock button on the upper right corner of the panel to return it to the previous position within the dock.

Note  – The Action bar and Tools panel are permanently docked.

Showing and Hiding Advanced Properties

All the properties of a control on Properties Panel are divided into categories and you can collapse or expand any category you want by clicking the toggle arrow. Also some properties are hidden until specific objects are selected like the Edit Rectangle property appears when a rectangle drawn with the rectangle tool is selected. The only category that is always visible is the appearence category. At the bottom of this category is a special section containing advanced properties (hidden by default). These include settings for applying blend modes, fill rules and strokes.

 

Resetting the Active Workspace

After expanding the dock, hiding and showing panels, and repositioning and resizing floating panels onscreen (and vertically in the dock), you might eventually want to get back to basics and return to the default application panel arrangement (known as the Active Workspace). Expression Design contains a special command that allows you to do so instantly.

 

 

1. Under the Window Menu, choose Reset Active Workspace.

 

You cannot save custom workspaces in Expression Design.

Selecting Tools

You can access all the tools in Expression Design from the tools panel located in the upper left corner of your sceen. Each tool has a descriptive icon next to it and also you will see a tooltip when you hover over the icon. The tools which are hidden and not visible directly are accesible through the fly out list.

You can also identify the tool shortcuts with tooltips.