newbie question on clipping masks

[abracadaver]

Hey there! I am teaching myself illustrator right now with Adobe's classroom in a book, but am having problems with its counterintuitive layout. How do you combine non-overlapping shapes (like seperate text lines) into one recognized shape to use as a clipping mask?

Thanks!

 

[apepp]

hello!

from my interpretation of your posted query, all clipping masks can be created from anything that is a path, you can group theses elements together, place it above the object or image to be clipped, select both the clipping path and the target object, select from the menu > object > clipping mask > make.

this will make the object above take the properties of the object below. In CS or CS2 the text lines don't have to converted into paths for this to work. Can't remember if this happens in earlier versions of ilustrator. To convert text to outline paths select from the menu > type > create outlines.

best of luck!
andrew