How to Set Up the Work Area in Adobe Illustrator

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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Before beginning your project, you can set up the work area in Adobe Illustrator to suit your requirements. These instructions apply to Adobe Illustrator 8. Procedures for other versions may vary.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Adobe Illustrator

Step 1

Open Adobe Illustrator. The white window that appears is the work area.
Step 2

To set the size of the artboard, click on File, then Document Setup. A popup window appears.
Step 3

Choose one of the presets or choose Custom. If you choose Custom, you will have to enter the dimensions that you want. Click OK.
Step 4

Select Show Tools from the View menu. (If Hide Tools is active, click on it to Show Tools.) The Tools palette appears.
Step 5

Click on the Page tool.
Step 6

Drag the page to the desired location on the artboard.
Step 7

Select the view that you want to use from the View menu.

Tips & Warnings

You can also set the artboard to match the page size set in the Print Setup by selecting Use Print Setup (Windows) or Use Page Setup (Mac).
You can drag the page to any area of the artboard, but any part beyond the printable area will not be printed.

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