Dialog Box in Illustrator 10 using XP(eXtra Pain)

[calvinkim]

I'm sorry to bother you with stupid question, but I'm a n00b here.
How do I set up so that I can see a 'dialog box' all the time? In photoshop, I see a dialog box at the bottom of top menu(File,Edit,Layer...). I'm suspecting same dialog box should appear under illustrator, too, but I don't see any and I don't know how to enable it. I spent last 10 hours searching the net, and I ended up here. How do I do it? Can you take such intellectual challenge?


One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all... And in the GPL free them.

 

[blueark]

That's a relatively new addition to Photoshop, and Illustrator hasn't quite caught up yet. Basically, it's a context sensitive tool-options box. In other words, if you select a paintbrush, the relevant options appear. Change to a marquee selection tool, and the option change to suit.

A few alternatives are available in Illustrator. Firstly, tools that have a small arrow on them can be dragged off the toolbox so you can access the different variations at once. Also, double-clicking a tool may bring up the various options available for it, if any.

 

[HobbitK]

Calvin,
Blueark's answer is exactly correct. Hopefully AI will add that feature in future releases.
And I always thought XP stood for eXPerimental

 

[calvinkim]

Thank you, guys.
I'm forever grateful.

The following is off the topic, but just for fun.
XP in Windows XP stands for...
* eXtra Pain
* eXtra Processor
* eXtra Pathetic
* eXpand PC
* eXplode PC
* eXtremely Proprietary
* eX Paperclip (they got rid of it at last)
* eXponential Pricing
* eXPensive
* eXPired
* eXtra Problems
* linuX-Promoting
* eXtacy Pill
* eXtra Payment
* eXPerimental
* eXtra Profits
* eXtremely unPredictable
* Xenophobic Programming
* eXtended Protocols
* eXcentric Programming
* 10th Pre-beta
* eXcremental Pile
* eXclude Pirates (that was the plan, anyway)
* Xmas Party
* eXPloitation
* Among the Microsoft developers, XP is 2001 in Roman numerals. The more standard MMI was avoided, because the MRNSDK (Microsoft Roman Numeral Development Kit) doesn't fully support the M symbol for 1000. Of course, P is not generally included in the Roman numeral system; it was quietly added between the 1.01 and subsequent 8.0 releases of the MRNSDK. Though undocumented, and possessing obscure semantics, the P extension is widely used. In any case, it is easy to verify through experimentation that XP = 2001. (Posted on comp.os.linux.advocacy by Robert Morelli)
* Ironically, the Mozilla team use 'XP' to represent 'Cross Platform'
* eXtra Pillow (useful for when you're waiting for it to boot)
(source:

http://www.madhousebeyond.com/?mode=docview&view=xp)

By the way, THE official meaning of XP is eXPerience, I think.
But one must wonder, experience what?
eXPerience eXtra Pain?
eXPerience eXPensive?
...

One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all... And in the GPL free them.