Panel widgets

Each of the panels in Expression Design contains sliders and buttons that let you manipulate or format paths and shapes. Collectively, these controls are called widgets . These widgets are complex controls that offer a great deal of flexibility if you know how they work. Here's a quick rundown on how to get the most out of the widgets in Expression Design.

Panel scrolling

When the contents of a panel become too long to display fully, a scroll bar will appear along the right side of the panel. You can navigate through a long panel by clicking the arrows at the top or bottom of the scroll bar, by clicking within the scroll bar itself, or by right-clicking in the scroll bar and choosing from the context menu.

The Properties panel displaying a scroll bar

The Properties panel offers many options that you won't necessarily see at first glance. You can view additional features inside this panel by clicking the two types of "More information" buttons. The first type, indicated with a  icon, shows advanced options for a section inside the panel. The second type, with a  icon, displays or hides an entire section within the panel. For example, when you have an object selected on your page, you can view the Effects section (to apply Live Effects) by clicking the  icon next to the word Effects.

Two types of panel extenders

Using sliders

The slider is a common control in panels, and is useful for quickly fine-tuning the value of an attribute. Note that many sliders can at first appear as static text or as a number. For example, the Fill Opacity slider at the bottom of the Appearance section of the Properties panel lets you adjust an object's transparency in one-percent increments.

The Fill and Stroke Opacity sliders

• Dragging sliders  To choose a value in a slider, position the cursor over the slider (you'll see the cursor change to ). When you click and drag up or to the right, you increase the slider value. If you drag to the left or down, you decrease the value. 

Tip: To adjust the value by larger increments, hold down the SHIFT key while dragging. To adjust by smaller increments, hold down the CTRL key.

• Entering values numerically  If you click a slider, Expression Design lets you enter a value numerically. For example, if you know you want a Fill Opacity of exactly 25%, it might be faster to click the current number, type 25, and then press ENTER, than it would be to drag the slider until you get the correct value.

Using galleries

When you choose a brush stroke , a font, or a custom color swatch , Expression Design displays a gallery window that temporarily overlays the Properties panel. The gallery is broken down into three sections: Favorites, Most Recent, and Categories (called Typefaces in the Font gallery).

The Font Gallery

You can select an item from any of the sections by clicking it. The gallery will remain open until you click elsewhere in the application window or press ESC. You can move a font or brush stroke to the Favorites section by dragging its name from either the Most Recent or Categories (or Typefaces) section.