Using the Welcome screen


    The Welcome screen automatically appears when you open Illustrator. You can use this window to create a new document, open an existing document, and get information about how to use Illustrator.

To use the Welcome screen:

  1. Choose Help > Welcome Screen to display the window if it's not already open.
  2. Select one of the following options:
    • What's New in Illustrator to launch your Web browser and take you to a Web page describing new features in Illustrator.
    • Tutorials to launch your Web browser and take you to a Web page containing illustrated lessons that will help you learn how to use Illustrator.
    • Cool Extras to see a PDF catalog listing all of the samples that are provided with Illustrator, including clip art, bitmap images, premade templates, premade symbols, graphic styles, swatches, brushes, and actions.
    • New Document to create a new document. For information on setting options for new documents, see Creating new documents.
    • New from Template to create a new document from a template. For more information on choosing templates, see Creating new documents.
    • Open Document to open an existing file as an Illustrator document. For more information on the types of files you can open in Illustrator, see Opening existing files.
    • Close to exit the Welcome screen and access the rest of Illustrator.

To prevent the Welcome window from appearing each time Illustrator launches:

  1. Choose Help > Welcome Screen to display the window.
  2. Deselect Show This Dialog at Startup, and click Close.