illustrator Multimedia-Pro Tips

Keyboard Short cuts.

1.	Apple+Shift+A = Drops all Selections
2.	Up-arrow + Polygon, Star or Spiral Tool = increases points on a star, sides on polygon and coils on a spiral.
3.	Down-arrow + Polygon, Star or Spiral Tool = removes points from a star, sides on polygon and coils from a spiral.
	Option + Star Tool = increases the angle of the star's points.
	Option + Knife Tool = cut from point to point across a path with a straight line.

	How do you resize a text box in Illustrator?
	Go to View > Show Bounding Box (Apple-Shift-B). Now you can resize not only text boxes but other shapes on the fly. Don't use the hollow arrow, use the black one.

How to Set Crop and Trim Marks in Illustrator

Crop and trim marks in Adobe Illustrator indicate where artwork is to be cut and trimmed after printing. Illustrator wont let you place multiple crop marks in a document.
Instead use trim marks, not crop marks. Illustrator’s Crop Marks command actually crops your illustration for export, Save For Web, or for placing EPS files into other applications like After Effects. Trim marks simply indicate trimming without actually changing the document. You can use them alone or in conjunction with crop marks.

Create Crop Marks
Create your artwork.
Draw a rectangle to define the boundaries where you want the crop marks to appear.
Select the rectangle with the Selection tool.
Choose Make under Crop Marks in the Objects menu. Crop marks will appear at the corners of the selected rectangle.

Note: If no rectangle is selected, Illustrator will place the crop marks at the corners of the art board.
Warnings:
You cannot edit crop marks. You can remove them (choose Remove under Crop Marks in the Object menu) and remake them.

Create Trim Marks Around an Object
Create an object.
Select your object with the Selection tool.
Click Trim Marks under Create in the Filters menu. Trim marks will appear around the object.

	Cropping with a clipping mask
	1. create a rectangle with no fill on a layer above the lines 2. select both the rectangle and ALL the fills or lines on the layer below it. ( all the art you're clipping must be on one layer) 3. create a clipping mask (command 7 on the Mac, or object--> clipping mask --> make)

How to rotating objects around a circle

1.	create object(s) if more then one then group them together.

2.	Select the rotate tool. move the center pointer of the object out to the spot you would like to rotate the objects around.

3.	With the same tool selected now move and duplicate the object to a new position. (hold down option key)

4.	press (Apple + D ) to duplicate the object around the circle. Us the Info window to help make positioning easier.

How do you pull out one Bezier handle at time?

You can't pull out one handle at a time from a Bezier point. You want to keep one side of the line straight without moving it. You can't! but you can get very close.
Use the convert direction point Tool (<) to Pull out point handles.
Now, as you pull it out, pull it inline (in the same direction ) with the straight line. drop drag.
Now holding the option and the apple command key pull the handle you want to be curved.

How to copy a color to the Gradient Palette

1.	With The eyedropper tool, Control-click in your image to load that color into a gradient pointer

2.	Drag one pointer over another to swap their colors.

3.	Hold down the Option key to drag a copy of a color pointer.

4.	Click on the lower edge of a gradient to add a new color.

For More Information see Page 100-115 of the Illustrator 6 Wow book.

Press Theater Masks