Learning Adobe Illustrator Doesn't Have To Hurt
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New users to Adobe Illustrator often complain that they find the program "fiddly" and frustrating. When we run Adobe training courses, we recognise that part of our job is rid people of this perception of Illustrator as a difficult program to use. We have identified three main elements to making people aware that Illustrator is no more difficult or frustrating than any other program.
The first thing is, we are always reminding new users of the ease with which you can change back your drawing to a state earlier than the point where it has gone wrong. Also, we constantly remind delegates that they must be on the right tool in order for a given operation is to work. As well as this, we give them an insight into the subtle and useful visual feedback provided by Illustrator as you create and manipulate elements within your drawing.
New users to Illustrator will often attempt to manipulate elements within their drawing without first activating the Selection tool. For example, they will create a shape with, say, the Ellipse tool and then, while the Ellipse tool is still active, they try to move or resize the shape they have just drawn or click on the page to attempt to deselect the shape. They then get puzzled and annoyed when little ellipses keep appearing in their drawing or Illustrator's shape dimension dialogue box keeps on appearing.
The key factor in avoiding these types of errors is to keep looking at the various signals that the program provides, in particular those signals relating to the cursor appearance. For example, if you are attempting to resize a rectangle, you can only do this when your cursor changes to a slanted line with an arrow at each end (This indicates that your cursor is now in the correct position).
Another thing that new users do is attempt to modify elements in their drawing without clicking on the Selection tool first. One example might be they draw a shape using, say, the Polygon tool and then, with the Polygon tool still active, they attempt to move or resize the polygon they have just drawn or click on the page to deselect the polygon. They then get annoyed and puzzled when tiny polygons keep appearing in their drawing or Illustrator's shape dimension window keeps on popping up.
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).
If you a new user to a program like Illustrator, it is inevitable that you will make errors: things may go slightly wrong or even get completely messed up. The key thing here is to learn the Undo habit. For example, if you accidentally move an object don't try to manually put it back where it was, simply choose Edit - Undo or use the shortcut Control-Z (Command-Z on a Mac). If you Undo too far back, you can use the Redo command to come forward again. (The shortcut for Redo is Control-Shift-Z.)
If your effort to create a drawing has gone horribly wrong, the best thing to do is to bite the bullet and choose Revert from the File menu. This is a way of saying "OK, this isn't working. I give up!" The Revert command discards all of the changes you have made to the document since it was last saved and can be another useful way of avoiding unnecessary frustration.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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