Brush creation question. 2

[Poita]

Hi.
I'm new to this forum and i'm also almot entirely ignorant about illustrator but i am having a friend who can use it create something for me and i wanted to ask if something was possible before i ask my friend to try it.

Basically what we are making is a kind of learning tool for teaching English to foriegners and foriegn kids. It is a simple black and white page. It's an A4 with a kind of grid on it. Into the squares i want to have a range of kind of baloons a bit like speech balloons but there will be about 20 different types according to shape. Also in the balloons i want to have a list of words that can be dropped in and have the different words and balloon shapes interchangable.
Also there will be a few other icons so all in all there could be about 100 things that i want to be able to choose and drop into the grid.
I want it so when i'm creating different exercises and topics i can load the proggram illustrator and load up the empty grid page which will allways be the same and have a bunch of balloons and text content to choose from . . . i dont know much but i think you would call them 'brushes' right? well they would be like stamps that i'd drop into place.
I'm asking if this is possible but also i want them to fall into place in a precise way so they are alllined neatly int he grid andnot just dropping whereever the mouse is. That would take ages to compose each page. I want it a bit like the way a computer desk top is with XP. the icons usually snap into alignment with the others.
Anyway can someone please tell me if this is possible and would an actuall program be needed or can it be done in regular illustrator?

Sorry for the long and maybe a bit confusing post.Hope you can help.

 

[itchybug]

Poita:

This was done in Illustrator CS, but it should work in 10 and CS2 as well:

First, draw your grid:

Next, forget about the grid for a while. Draw your text balloons, or whatever you want:

Now, drag each object over onto the Symbols palette:

Next, back to the grid. Drag one of the Symbols back onto the artboard:

Now, Send it to the back (Ctrl-Shift-[ or Object>Arrange>Send to Back), and select both the grid box and the Symbol:

Now, you are going to make an envelope from the box, and put the Symbol in it, by hitting Ctrl-Alt-C (Make Envelope with Top Object). We can now drop in Symbols and apply them to grid boxes all over the place.

Next, you can draw a set of text-balloon thingies, and alt-drag any one of those you want in the grid instead of ones that are already there onto the Symbol to replace it.

To fully understand what you are doing here, you should play with it a bunch. I'm including a zipped version of the file I used to do this:

http://www.itchybug.com/grid00.zip

The benefit of using an envelope with a Symbol in it, is that the Symbols will automatically be scaled the same once in there. You could achieve the same thing by just lining up the Symbols, but then whatever size they are they are.

HTH

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[Poita]

Wow Bert.
That has got to be the greatest reply i have ever got froma forum question.
You are really kind to take the time to show me that. Gives me faith in mankind.
It is really helpful and i appreciate it so much Bert. Thank's alot dude really.

Poita.

 

[itchybug]

Poita:

It was nothing...

The power of Symbols and Envelopes cannot be over-emphasized. It took me 10 minutes to do all that (OK I've been at it for a long time, but still)...

Experiment with it, and see what cool stuff you dig up. Try tugging at the anchors on the envelopes, for instance...

Glad to help.

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[filippot]

+12 to Bert

 

[itchybug]

Thanks.

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com