In this exercise, I'm going to show you how to load your illustration with metadata that includes information about you. Who's the author? That'd be you. What's your contact info? Is the illustration copyrighted? What's your URL that is your Web address, and so on. And then you can save that info off as a template so you can apply it over and over again. So I have opened Four-page floral 6 in.ai found inside the 03_open folder, and I've already assigned metadata to this document.
To get to it, you go up to the File menu and you choose the File Info command where you press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+I, Command+Shift+Option+I on the Mac. And this is actually a keyboard shortcut that I lobbied for. So it's mash your fist on the modifier keys, press the I key for Info. The reason is I find this to be one of the most important commands for working creative professionals across the Adobe Creative Suite applications. So go ahead and choose this command, and you will find out that the author of this illustration is a fellow named Tolchik associated with the Fotolia image library, and you can learn more about that library at fotolia.com/deke.
You can even get a special deal if you so desire, and you can go right there by clicking on the Go To URL button. That will automatically open this link inside of your default Web browser. And one of the reasons I mention this is because you can do the same thing with your illustrations. You can enter a URL for your Web site. Now, if you want to do this, go to the Description tab, the very first tab here inside of this File Info dialog box, Document Title will contain the file name by default. But you'll have to fill out the other info.
For example, definitely fill out the Author name; you, of course. And then you might want to go ahead and set up a Copyright Status. Notice that you can say Unknown if you want to which seems pointless; that's the default or you want to copyright your document or if you're feeling magnanimous, you can set it to Public Domain. If you're going to enter a Copyright Notice which I suggest you do, then here's how to do it. The trick is entering that copyright character right there. So I'm going to go ahead and press the Enter key or the Return key and knock that down the line, and here's what you do.
On the Mac, you press Option+G as in guard, because a copyright is a way to guard your illustration. On the PC, you have to press and hold the Alt key and then dial-in the character address for the Copyright symbol on your keyboard's numerical keypad. And here's how it works. Press and hold Alt if you're working on a PC, go to your numerical keypad and dial-in these numbers sequentially. 0, 1, 6, 9 and then release the Alt key. So once again, you press and hold the Alt key, you dial in sequentially on the numerical keypad.
That's the only way this works; 0, 1, 6, 9 and then you release the Alt key and then you have a Copyright character. All right, we don't need two in a row. So I'll delete one. After that you would enter the current year which in my case is 2010 but for you, it might be you know 2139 or something like that and then your name or company and so on. All right, so let's say you've entered this basic info and I don't actually need this new information I've entered. Oh! And by the way, if you want to enter your contact info, you go up to the IPTC tab, go ahead and switch to it and then enter your Address info, your Phone number, your E-mails etcetera.
All right, I'm going to switch back to Description. Now, let's say you want to go ahead and save out this info as a template so you don't have to fill out these individual fields over and over again. Well, first, make sure that Keywords and Description are blank because those would be document-specific entries. So you'd just want to keep everything as general as possible. So this would be the info for your illustrations across the board. Don't worry about Document Title. That goes ahead and references the file name by default. Then drop down here.
Click this down-pointing arrowhead. Notice I've already created a template for Tolchik, but what you would do is you would choose Export. As little sense is that makes that you're exporting a template here. Go ahead and choose the command. It seems to me we're just saving one. And then go ahead and enter My metadata template or possibly something a little more descriptive than that. Then you want to end it with the extension, XMP, although theoretically, that'll be added by default. Then click on Save and then after that point, you can bring up all of these entries once again by clicking on this down-pointing arrowhead and then choosing My metadata template from the list.
And you'll be asked whether you want to clear the existing properties and replace with template properties. Most likely that's what you want to do is select that very first option and then click OK in order to load the File Info dialog box with your metadata info. Notice now that My metadata template changes to a button. So all you have to do is click on it in order to load that data. All right, I'll cancel that and I'll actually cancel out of the dialog-box because I've already filled things out in advance. And that's how you go about adding metadata to a document in Illustrator.
The final step would be to go to the File menu and choose the Save command or press Ctrl+S, Command+S on the Mac, in order to update that file on disk.
Author
Released
5/28/2010- Creating great art using basic tools
- Brushing and building organic artwork
- Scaling and rotating path outlines
- Creating and formatting text
- Drawing articulated paths with the Pen tool
- Combining paths with Pathfinder operations
- Printing and exporting to the web
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: I was not able to locate my saved shortcuts and cannot locate the folder I created to place the preferences into. The Illustrator steps are clear and using the search function I should be able to find the folder, but it cannot be located. How can I find the shortcuts file on a Mac?
A: To search for the shortcuts file on a Mac, press Cmd+F. Then change the option that says "Kind" in the top-left corner to System Files by choosing "Other" and selecting "System Files" from the menu.



Q: The instructions for installing the dekeKeys don't work on my computer (which is running Mac OS X Lion). Is there an update to these?
A: The dekeKeys distributed with this course will still work for Lion. You just need to add them to a slightly different folder than in previous versions of OS X.
Open a new Finder window and choose Go > Go to Folder. Type the following file path exactly as written below. Copying and pasting may result in an error.
~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings/en_US
Move and/or copy/paste the dekeKeys to this folder and follow the rest of the instructions as outlined in the video, "Installing the dekeKeys keyboard shortcuts."
Related Courses
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Deke's Techniques
with Deke McClelland154h 49m Intermediate
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Introduction
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Remapping OS shortcuts6m 56s
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1. Making a Document
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Managing artboards1m 20s
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The Welcome screen3m 49s
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Creating a new document7m 13s
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Advanced document controls6m 52s
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Auto-arranging artboards3m 42s
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Rulers and artboards6m 40s
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Saving a native AI document7m 25s
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Closing all open documents2m 45s
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2. Navigation and the Workspace
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Using tools to zoom and pan5m 56s
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Scroll wheel tricks2m 13s
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The tabbed-window interface6m 17s
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Closing all but one document3m 30s
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Saving a custom workspace4m 57s
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Hiding the bounding box4m 27s
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Keyboard increments7m 15s
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Cycling between screen modes5m 21s
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3. Opening Documents and Getting Organized
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Opening a document5m 2s
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Introducing Adobe Bridge6m 6s
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File-type associations4m 3s
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Previewing and collecting8m 17s
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4. Basic Line Art
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Everything is anything1m 14s
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Meet the line tools3m 30s
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Saving large layer previews5m 50s
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Creating custom guides5m 31s
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Creating a heart using arcs3m 51s
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Adjusting control handles4m 13s
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Drawing a line segment4m 51s
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Rotate, Fill, and Stack4m 37s
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Drawing a looping spiral4m 41s
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Tracing a template layer5m 1s
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Selecting similar objects3m 32s
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5. Geometric Shapes
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The anatomy of a path1m 41s
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Meet the shape tools3m 32s
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Creating a compound path4m 29s
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Drawing rounded rectangles3m 28s
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Aligning to a key object3m 47s
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The constraint axes4m 11s
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Using the Flare tool5m 32s
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6. Paint, Build, and Transform
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Painting artwork from life1m 21s
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Tracing a photograph2m 41s
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Draw, Move, and Duplicate5m 27s
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Rotating and duplicating6m 1s
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Pressure-sensitive input4m 24s
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Using the Shape Builder tool4m 57s
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Establishing design groups5m 54s
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When to rotate vs. reflect4m 55s
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Simulating beveled edges6m 46s
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7. Swatch, Stroke, and Stacking Order
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The Document Color mode6m 20s
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Introducing the Stroke panel4m 46s
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Cap, Join, and Miter Limit6m 42s
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Managing color swatches4m 55s
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Filling paths inside groups6m 24s
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Adjusting the stacking order7m 44s
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Combining multiple fills5m 29s
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Creating a tile pattern9m 2s
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The new CS5 arrowheads5m 44s
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Creating a callout line7m 1s
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Width tool tips and tricks8m 47s
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8. Working with Type
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Next-generation text1m 19s
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Making a margin guide5m 7s
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Offsetting flush-left text4m 47s
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Placing and threading text6m 18s
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Working with point text7m 10s
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Redefining paragraph styles6m 42s
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Using the Glyphs panel6m 41s
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Spell-checking text4m 24s
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Updating a graphic style5m 43s
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Creating type on a path7m 26s
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Adjusting baseline shift4m 18s
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9. Using the Pen Tool
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Moving and deleting points7m 46s
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Editing a path as you go7m 5s
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Faking a spline curve5m 54s
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Adding corners to a spline7m 15s
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How control handles work10m 17s
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Aligning open paths5m 38s
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Splitting and joining paths8m 51s
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Cusp points and miter limits6m 45s
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Using the Convert Point tool4m 42s
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Stacking clipped paths4m 28s
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10. Pathfinder Operations
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Unite closed, join open4m 46s
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Switching shape modes4m 43s
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Adding to a compound shape5m 32s
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Outline Stroke and Unite3m 37s
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Painting in the foliage5m 23s
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Filling in and erasing away6m 31s
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Painting more precise holes5m 17s
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Adding in rough edges7m 53s
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Contouring roots and limbs8m 56s
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Filling in the limbs4m 19s
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Using the Divide operation5m 46s
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11. Printing a Document
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Converting type to outlines8m 55s
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Setting trim size and bleed6m 22s
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Stroking a placed image4m 54s
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Filling in your bleeds5m 34s
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Troubleshooting weak blacks6m 36s
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The General Print options5m 20s
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Placement, scale, and tiling6m 39s
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Trim and printer marks6m 23s
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Warnings and document raster5m 21s
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12. Exporting to the Web (and Elsewhere)
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Saving a high-contrast GIF7m 18s
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The versatile PNG format6m 33s
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Saving a full-color PNG4m 47s
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Placing an AI Smart Object7m 38s
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Conclusion
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Until next time1m 33s
-
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Video: Adding copyright and metadata information