About preferences
Preferences are options regarding how you want Illustrator to work, including those for display, tools, ruler units, and exporting information. Your preferences are saved in a file called AIPrefs (Windows) or Adobe Illustrator Prefs (Mac OS), which is launched each time you start Illustrator.
Open a preferences dialog box
Do one of the following:
(Windows) Choose Edit > Preferences > [preference set name].
(Mac OS) Choose Illustrator > Preferences > [preference set name].
With nothing selected, click the Preferences button on the Control panel.
To switch to a different preference set, do one of the following:
Select an option from the menu at the upper-left of the Preferences dialog box.
Click Next to display the next options, or click Prev to display the previous options.
Reset all preferences to default settings
Resetting preferences can be helpful if you are having problems with the application.
Do one of the following: Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Illustrator. Your current settings are deleted.
Remove or rename the AIPrefs file (Windows) or Adobe Illustrator Prefs file (Mac OS). New preferences files are created the next time you start Illustrator.
Note: It is safe to remove the entire Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings folder. This folder contains various preferences that can be regenerated.
Setting Illustrator preferences
The Illustrator preferences file manages the commands and panel settings in Illustrator. When you open Illustrator, the positioning of panels and commands are stored in the Illustrator preferences file. If you want to restore the default settings for Illustrator or change the current settings, delete the Illustrator preferences. Illustrator automatically creates a preference file, when you restart Illustrator and save a file.
Depending on the operating system that you are using, the Illustrator preferences file is available at the following location:
Mac OS X
<startup drive>/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings/en_US*/Adobe Illustrator Prefs
Windows XP
<startup drive>\ Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings\en_US*\AIPrefs
Windows Vista or Windows 7
<startup drive>\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings\en_US*\AIPrefs.
If you cannot locate the preferences file, use
your operating system’s Find command, and search for AIPrefs (Windows)
or Adobe Illustrator Prefs (Mac OS).About plug-in modules
Plug-in modules are software programs that add features to Adobe Illustrator. A number of special effects plug-ins come with your program and are automatically installed in the Plug-ins folder inside the Illustrator folder.
You can install any commercial plug-in designed for use with Photoshop or Illustrator. To install an Adobe Systems plug-in module, use the installer if one is provided. Otherwise, drag a copy of the module to the Plug-ins folder inside the Illustrator folder. Then restart Illustrator for the plug-in to take effect. To install a third-party plug-in module, follow the installation instructions that came with the plug-in module.
