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Woodley43
Woodley43
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How to delete self defined "Swatches"?

Dec 3, 2012 8:06 AM

I work with Adobe Design Std CS5 Illustrator (German version), newly installed - not migrated from an older model! - on iMac27, i7, SSD and OS X 10.8:

 

German:  Ich habe viele eigene Farbpaletten (Farbfelder) unter "Benutzerdefiniert" gespeichert. Ich kann diese von dort auch laden, kann aber die überzähligen "Paletten" nicht löschen, da ich den Order "Benutzerdefiniert" oder die entsprechenden Dateien unter "Adobe Illustrator/Vorgaben/de_DE/Farbfelder (oder Swatches)/..." (Angaben gemäss Hilfe) nicht finden kann. Ich sehe nur die von Illustrator vorgegebenen Paletten. Liegt nun Illustrator Hilfe falsch oder liegt das Problem bei Apple OS X 10.8?

 

English: I have created my own "Swatches" (Farbfelder) and saved (too) many of them.

Now I want to delete the majority, but I cannot find the directory "Benutzerdefiniert" or "User created?" on the path as hinted by the Illustrator Help (German version: Adobe Illustrator/Vorgaben/de_DE/Farbfelder). I only find the various Color Collections stored during Illustrator installation.

Are Illustrator procedures to blame - or again Apple OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) intricacies?

Apple started to confuse even long term users with Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6). Every new version offered many surprises or caveats and endless calls to Apple...

 

Shall I reinstall Illustrator and create the user defined "Swatches" again from the relevant Illustrator files? A sledge hammer method...

821 Views   7 Replies   Latest reply: Wade_Zimmerman, Dec 6, 2012 8:38 AM
 
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  • rcraighead
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    1. rcraighead,
    Dec 5, 2012 3:25 PM   in reply to Woodley43
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    If I understand what you want to do, select the swatch by clicking it and click the "trash" icon at the bottom of the swatch panel. Select multiple swatch by Shift clicking and click "Trash" or drag them to the trash icon. I am not aware of a way to differentiate "default" vs. "user-defined" swatches.

     
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  • Woodley43
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    2. Woodley43,
    Dec 6, 2012 5:59 AM   in reply to Woodley43
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    Thank you 1.craighead, but you misunderstood. I should be more specific: as I have the German Version it is hard to find correct terms for the English Version. In the German Version the terms "Farbfelder"(Swatches) und Farbfeldbibliotheken"(Swatch Libraries) are not consistently distinguished in Illustrator Help

     

    What did I do? In my CS5 German Standard Version I saved self-defined Swatch libraries (Farbfeldbibliotheken) the usual way and they are obviously stored under "Benutzerdefiniert (User specified?) as suggested in Illustrator Help.

    What can I do? I can activate such self-defined Swatch Libraries.

    What is my problem? I cannot delete obsolete "Swatch Libraries" neither using the dialogs within the Swatch Window (Fenster Farbfelder) nor delete them from the subdirectory "Benutzerdefiniert" (User defined?) using Mac OS X 10.8 Finder. (Self defined Swatch Libraries are saved under "Adobe Illustrator CS5/Vorgaben/de-DE/Farbfelder/...").

     

    I ask again:  Did I ignore obvious possibilities? Are Illustrator procedures to blame - or again Apple OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) intricacies?


    I have not yet reinstalled Illustator CS again ....


     


     
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  • Wade_Zimmerman
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    3. Wade_Zimmerman,
    Dec 6, 2012 6:12 AM   in reply to Woodley43
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    If I understand you correctly what you want to do is open the Swatch Libraries (Farbfeldbibliotheken) in Illustrator, they are nothing more than an Illustrator file so when you open them they will be blank documents but what you want to d is open the Swatches panel in that document and you will see the swatches for that library. Then you select the swaches taht are obsolete in that Library and resave the file and close it out.

     

    Now when you load those Swatch Libraries will no longer contain the obsolete swatches.

     
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  • Woodley43
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    4. Woodley43,
    Dec 6, 2012 6:25 AM   in reply to Wade_Zimmerman
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    Thank you. I know that Swatch libraries are "empty" Illustrator files. I do not want to delete Swatches within a Library, I want to delete whole Swatch Library files (ganze Farbfeldbiblitheken), because I have too many obsolete ones.

    Can you see the self defined Swatch Libraries in Mac OS X 10.8? Other "Templates" in Photoshop or InDesign I can delete in the Mac Finder - but the Directory and the Library Files are invisible in Mac OS X 10.8.

     
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  • Monika Gause
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    5. Monika Gause,
    Dec 6, 2012 6:27 AM   in reply to Woodley43
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    Then this one should solve your problem:

    http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/access-hidden-user-library-f iles.html

     
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  • Woodley43
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    6. Woodley43,
    Dec 6, 2012 7:16 AM   in reply to Monika Gause
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    Thank you, that helped. Finally, there is no blame on Illustator

    It was obviously an Apple OS X 10.7+ quirck. Firstly, I still do not understand, why only my self defined Swatch Libraries are "invisible", all others Libraries are "visible". And secondly, why does Apple not tell users in the "Systemeinstellungen" how to make things "visible". Apple philosophy once upon a time was, "... keep it simple". I work since 1994 with Macs and Adobe, I still want to be creative with all the wunderful Adobe programs but do not want to get lost in the system djungle...

    Nevertheless, cordial thanks agin!

     
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  • Wade_Zimmerman
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    7. Wade_Zimmerman,
    Dec 6, 2012 8:38 AM   in reply to Woodley43
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    They are not invisible they are in a different folder.

     

    Users/Username/Library (the  one you just found by holding the option/alt key when going to the Go Menu)/Aplication Support/Adobe Illustrator CS#/US Eng/Swatches

     

    now you should see them here are my own notice tht the defaukt swatches are not present.

     

    Screen Shot 2012-12-06 at 11.36.02 AM.png

     

    And i just deleted them all as well.

     
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