Cracking Open the FreeHand Preferences

FreeHand's preferences are actually Text Documents that can be opened and edited with a simple text editor. If you know what you are doing, you can easily setup things that are not usually found in the Preferences Dialog.

On the Mac, the Preference file sits in a different location depending on the version you're using:

• FreeHand 7-8: System Folder -> Preferences
• FreeHand 9 and above: FreeHand folder -> English

For Windows users, it's located in the FreeHand root directory and is called FHprefs(.txt). Below are a couple of modifications you can do to your FreeHand Preferences to get more functionality.

Version: version listed with type

WARNING

Before editing the Preference File, you should make a backup copy first. Just make a copy of it then proceed.

Changing Number of Recent Documents (v7 and above)
Submitted by: Louis Linehan

The recent documents in the File menu can be change to any number you want by opening the preferences file with a simple text editing program. It's best to use an editor that has a Find Command, as it will be easier to find the items below and changing the following lines:

(MaxRecentDocuments) (4)

(NumOfRecentDocuments) (3)

Just change the numbers in the parenthesis to whatever you like. Always make sure that the NumOfRecentDocuments number does not go above the MaxRecentDocuments number.

Fast Preview Greek Text amount (v8 and above)

The Fast Preview is nice when working with large illustrations. Sometimes though, it's nice to still see the text instead of the large gray areas. Find the line listed below in the Preferences file:

(FastPreviewGreekSize) (50)

The number in parenthesis is the size the text has to be in order to see it on screen when in Fast Preview mode. Just change the number to whatever you like.