Studio Sidebar

The  Workspace Sidebar is your main control center for Astropad Studio. Here you can access most settings and functions, and customize them for your unique workflow. It can be moved to either the left or right side of your iPad Pro’s screen, and can always be revealed or hidden by tapping the Astro-red Ring Button.

We’ve put together full descriptions and visual keys on what this workspace has to offer.

Main Menu

When you first reveal Astropad Studio’s sidebar, it will open the Main Menu.

1 – From here, you can see your current connection status. It shows which is in use between your devices, whether you are using USB or Wi-Fi. It will also tell you the quality of your Wi-Fi connection. 

2 – Tap the three-lined symbol and it will quickly position your sidebar to the opposite side of the screen.

3 – Shows the current Mac or PC program in use.

4 – Tap here to access the Workspace for this program with customizable Sidebar Shortcuts.

Settings

5 – Pencil & Stroke - Adjust the length and color of your preview line, and customize stroke smoothing and pressure curve settings

6 –  Magic Gestures - Edit and customize Magic Gesture shortcuts.

7 –  General Settings - Adjust Astropad Studio’s settings for display brightness, retina, and color.

Info

8 – Move & Zoom - Go to Move & Zoom mode to adjust your screen's selection view. You can set the viewport to focus on only a small part of your computer's screen or the full.

9 – Connection - Test out your connection quality, as well as input response time.

10 – Learn & Support (not pictured but found below Connection) - Links to guides and more support materials.

Reset to defaults

Want to change your settings for a different use? You can always reset a setting to default at the very bottom of the sidebar.

Shortcuts Sidebar

From the Main Menu, tap Workspace to reveal shortcuts for your program in use. You can even edit the shortcuts for programs that don’t have a preset command set. These are typically used for any shortcuts that are convenient to your workflow, but not used often enough to be a Quick Key. In the image below, we are looking at the shortcuts for Photoshop. Remember that you can tap the logo to quickly switch between programs and their shortcuts!

1 – Current sidebar shortcut commands.

2 – Edit Workspace - Edit and rename your shortcuts for the sidebar, as well as edit and rename Finger Tap Magic Gestures and customizable quick

3 – Move & Zoom - Go to Move & Zoom mode to adjust your screen selection view.

4 – Keyboard - Pops up an On-screen keyboard for any typing needs. This can be used for text input, or to use any keyboard shortcuts that are not included in your shortcuts sidebar or quick keys.

5 – Quick Keys - Brings up on-screen modifier keys, including default options like command, option/alt, control, and shift, for convenience. This will also house your custom quick keys as well. 

Launch and Switch Programs

In the Shortcuts Sidebar, you are able to switch over and launch any Mac or PC app on your device's dock or taskbar by tapping the in-use Program’s icon.

Most known art programs that you will use with Astropad Studio have shortcuts added by default for your convenience! Not all apps will have shortcuts listed on the shortcuts sidebar by default, but you will still be able to add them through the  Edit Shortcuts button on the sidebar if necessary for your workflow.

To best utilize this feature, we recommend saving your most used programs in your device's dock or taskbar. If an app is not on your dock or taskbar, it is likely it will not appear in this menu.

Edit Shortcuts

Working with a program, but don’t see your desired shortcuts preset? No worries!

In Edit Shortcuts, you are able to delete, rearrange, rename, and replace the shortcuts already listed or add them to the sidebar if shortcuts are missing. Shortcuts are customizable and saveable on a per-app basis, so feel free to keep the list growing!

• Get organized by tapping “Add Separator” for space between your listed commands.
• Add new shortcuts to your list by tapping “Add Shortcut” where you can name, enter in, and save a shortcut.

Keep in mind, when creating shortcuts the keystrokes will be transcribed exactly as typed. If you make a mistake on the keystrokes for a shortcut, you will want to tap on the  Clear Keys button next to the text box rather than tapping the "Delete" or "Backspace" keys.

For Tap Shortcuts

At the bottom of the Edit Shortcuts sidebar is where you can edit  Finger Tap Shortcuts.

For both Two Finger Tap and Three Finger Tap – Tap to select the one you want to change. Just like adding or editing Shortcuts for the Shortcuts Sidebar, you can rename and enter in an entirely different shortcut command.

At default, these are set to  Undo and Redo, but you can choose any keyboard command. If needed, get creative!

Quick Keys

When you tap Quick Keys in the Shortcuts Sidebar, Modifier keys are placed on-screen. These can be dragged to any corner of the screen, and stay visible if the sidebar is hidden.

Keyboard

Tap the Keyboard to reveal Astropad Studio’s on-screen keyboard. This keyboard is also accessible from the on-screen Quick Keys. Even if you don’t feel like typing text, this keyboard can be utilized for shortcut commands as well.