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Using the Appearance palette


    The Appearance palette shows you the hierarchy of appearance attributes in your artwork. When you make a selection on the artboard or target an item in the Layers palette, the Appearance palette displays the attributes associated with the artwork. Fills and strokes are listed in stacking order (front to back); effects are listed in the order in which they are applied to the artwork.

    Layers, groups, type, meshes, linked files, bitmap images, blends, envelopes, flares, symbols, symbol sets, and graphs all function as containers in the Appearance palette. When you apply appearance attributes to a container, all artwork in the container takes on these additional attributes.

    Illustration of Appearance palette with these callouts: A. Path with stroke, fill, and effect B. Layer with transparency C. Group with effect D. Stroke with effect
    Appearance palette A. Path with stroke, fill, and effect B. Layer with transparency C. Group with effect D. Stroke with effect

    Displaying the Appearance palette

    Choose Window > Appearance.

    Displaying attributes in the Appearance palette

    Make a selection on the artboard, or target an item in the Layers palette. (See Changing the appearance of artwork using the Layers palette.) The attributes of the selected item appear in the Appearance palette. If the item is a container (such as a layer or group), double-click the word Contents in the Appearance palette to display the attributes of artwork in the container. Click the name of the container to redisplay the its attributes.

    Expanding and collapsing fills and strokes

    Click the triangle  the triangle to the left of the fill or stroke in the Appearance palette. Click again to collapse the fill or stroke.

    Reordering appearance attributes

    Drag an appearance attribute up or down in the palette to change the order that strokes, fills, and effects are applied. (If necessary, expand fills and strokes.) When the outline of the appearance attribute you are dragging appears in the desired position, release the mouse button.

    The stacking order of strokes and fills directly affects an object's appearance. For example, if the fill attribute is below the Contents entry, any fill attributes applied to objects will be applied in front of the fill.

    TipIf you apply a style to an object, but the style's fill color doesn't appear in the artwork, drag the Fill attribute above the Contents entry in the Appearance palette.

    Using the Appearance palette menu

    Click the triangle  the triangle in the upper right corner of the palette to access commands for working with appearance attributes.

    Showing and hiding thumbnails

    Choose Show Thumbnail or Hide Thumbnail from the Appearance palette menu.