Changing the display of swatches

To change the display of swatches in the Swatches palette choose a view option from the Swatches palette menu. Availabe options are: Small Thumbnail View, Large
Thumbnail View, Small List View and Large List View.

 
By default swatches are minimised to Small Thumbnail View:

 
Choose Large Thumbnail View to enlarge the swatch preview:

 
Choose Small List View to show both the swatch name and small preview:

 
Choose Large List View to show both the swatch name and larger preview:

Making custom palettes persistent
If there are libraries that you often use, you can set them to open automatically each time you launch Illustrator. Start by first opening your swatches library and then check the Persistent option which is found in the library’s palette menu.