Adobe Illustrator Classes | Software

By LynneKramer
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During our Adobe training courses, we have come to realise that one of our tasks is to rid people of the belief that Illustrator is a difficult program to learn. We find that new users to Adobe Illustrator will often moan that they find the program complex. To solve this problem, there are three main things that we like to point out to everyone who attends our Illustrator classes.

Firstly, we point out to people that they must be on the right tool in order to carry out a given operation. Secondly, we teach them to observe and interpret the rich visual feedback provided by the program as you carry out various operations. Thirdly, we always remind new users of the ease with which you can revert your drawing back to a state prior to the point where something has gone wrong.

If you a new user to a sophisticated program like Illustrator, you cannot be expected to avoid making errors: things may go a little awry or even get completely screwed up. The key thing here is to learn the power of the Undo command. For example, if you accidentally resize an object don't try to manually change it back to the original size, simply go to the Edit menu and choose Undo or use the keyboard shortcut (Control-Z or Command-Z on Apple Mac). If you Undo too many times, you can always use Edit - Redo to move forward again. (The shortcut for the Redo command is Control-Shift-Z.)

If your whole drawing has gone seriously wrong, perhaps the easiest thing to do is to take it on the chin and choose the Revert command from the File menu. This is like saying "OK, I give up. This isn't working!" File - Revert will discard every change you have made to the file since the last time you saved it and can be a very useful way of avoiding unnecessary frustration.

Another thing that new users find is that they are unable to carry out a certain operation because it is not permissible under the current circumstances or at that point in time. For example, you want to resize an object and you end up rotating or moving it instead.

The best way of avoiding these types of mistakes is to keep an eye on the various signals that Illustrator provides, particularly those relating the appearance of the cursor. Thus, for example, if you are trying to resize a rectangle, you can only do so when the cursor changes to a diagonal line with an arrow at both ends (indicating that your cursor is in the correct position).

When manipulating objects, Illustrator newbies will often forget to first highlight the Selection tool. For example, they will draw a shape with, say, the Line tool and then, while the Line tool is still highlighted, they will attempt to move or resize the line they have just drawn or perhaps click on the page to deselect the line. They are then bemused and cross when little lines keep appearing on the page or Illustrator's shape dimension window keeps on popping up.

This problem is easy to avoid. Always make sure that you are on the right tool. Thus, if you wish to manipulate an existing object, you have to ensure that the Selection tool is highlighted. One of the first keyboard shortcuts that we teach delegates who attend our Illustrator training courses is that you can temporarily activate the Selection tool by just pressing the Control key (or the Command key if you are using a Mac).

About the Author

The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with TrainingCompany.Com, an independent computer training company offering Adobe Illustrator Classes in London and throughout the UK.

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