Outlining a word in Illustrator 10

[smallworld96]

Is there a way to draw a line outlining an entire word as opposed to outlining each individual letter? (Without doing it freehand?) I have a Roland PC-12 that can print and cut images (to make labels and such). If I send a picture of a duck, for example, I simply add a line around the sillouette of the image called a "cutcontour" line. The blade on the printer follows this line and I have a detailed sticker of a duck in the shape of a duck. However, if I try to print out a name, I would like the blade to cut around the image of the word, not each individual letter (so I can peel off a whole name and stick it on something). How can I add a line sillouetting a word instead of each individual letter? Hope this makes sense. Thanks!

 

[blueark]

There's probably a few ways to do this, but here's an easy way:

1: Select your text and go to Type > Create Outlines.
2: Add a stroke to the text. Make it big enough so that all the letters run into each other.
3: Object > Path > Outline Stroke.
4: Option/Alt click on the union shape mode in the Pathfinder palette to make one clean outline.

That should do it! You might want to keep a copy of the non-outlined text before starting on this.