FreeHand Layers

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You can imagine the layers concept as a drawing done on several sheets of clear acetate. Each layer is transparent and can contain any number and kind of elements. An extremely complicated layout or illustration can be accomplished on a single layer, but placing groups of related objects on their own layer is usually more efficient.

The Layers panel

You can accomplish many things in your illustration through the Layers panel (shown in Figure 7-17). By default, new documents contain a Guides, a Foreground, and a Background layer. To create a new layer, go to the Layers Option pop-up menu triangle in the top-right corner of the panel and choose New Layer. A new layer appears at the top of the layers list, and is named Layer-1, Layer-2, and so on. Double-click the name and type a distinctive name for your new layer. To select a layer, click it to highlight it, as the Logo/drwgs layer is in the figure. When you select anything in the document, that object's layer is automatically highlighted.

Figure 7-17: The all-important Layers panel

You'll notice four icons to the left of the name. A single mouse click on any of the icons switches the function off or on. The check mark indicates visibility (the Lines layer has been turned off, and any elements on it are not visible). The circle tells you whether a layer is shown in Preview or Keyline views (the Middle layer's objects are in Keyline view). The padlock icon indicates whether a layer is locked. When the padlock icon is open, objects can be placed on that layer and modified. If the padlock is closed, as the Top layer is here, nothing on that layer can be selected or moved, and items cannot be placed on that layer. Drag a color to the square icon, and elements use that color as the bounding box and other selection indicators for that layer. This is a great aid if you're trying to select something that's in a mass of layers; Alt (Option) clicking the mouse takes you down a layer at a time, and you can watch the colors change to find the layer you want. The last element in the Layers panel is the separator bar between the Background layer and the rest. Any layer below the separator bar doesn't print and is grayed-out onscreen. You can either move the separator bar above layers, or move a layer below the separator bar, the result is the same.

Assigning objects to layers

Refer to Figure 7-17. If you draw another object that you want to place on the Lines layer, keep the new object selected and click the Lines layer. The object disappears so you have to click the blank spot to bring back the check mark and the new object's visibility. Then you realize that the lines are being blocked by something in the Top layer. Correct this by clicking and holding the mouse on the layer's name and dragging it to the new location. Locked layers can be moved up and down in the list, even though you can't modify elements on them.

Selecting objects on layers

When you need to select an object, it's a matter of clicking it with the Pointer tool. But what if you want to select all the elements on a layer (for instance, if you want to change the stroke width, or font style)? Just hold down the Alt (Option) key as you click the layer's name in the Layers panel, and all the elements on the layer are selected at the same time.

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