She's gone! Please help!!

[nosreba]

The boss fired our Marketing girl and has told me to take over (ya, right - i'm a rookie's rookie). All her files are in Illustrator. Pardon my ignorance on terminology: One particular file has a group of text that looks grouped and vectored(?) - i can click on the text box and copy/paste as is no problem. Another text box is not 'vectored' and when i try to cut/paste all i get is just the plain text.

How do I vector text on a PC? It has to be something easy, I'm sure. I've just never used Illustrator. Your help is appreciated.

 

[itchybug]

Nos:

The text you refer to (correctly) as vectored, has been "outlined", which means the actual font information is gone and has been replaced by vector drawings of letters.

You can outline text by going to Type>Outline Text.

<font size="36">A very BIG CAUTION:</font>

Once text has been outlined, there is NO WAY BACK. If you think you may ever have to edit the text (content wise) later, or even if you don't think you'll ever need it again, copy all the text and save it on a separate layer or in a separate file alltogether so you still have it somewhere.

Outlining text is useful if you are going to send the file to another person and this other person may not have the exact font you used installed on their computer, or if you want to manipulate individual characters...

Keep in mind, that for small text sizes the "hinting" is lost, meaning very small text will not look and print as sharply as non-outlined text.

Also, file size will increase when text is outlined.

Hope that gets you started. Check the help files (they are essentially the manual) for more in-depth info, and don't hesitate to check back in here if you need more assistance.

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[vakohles]

Not sure what you mean.

But if you are refering to creating Outlines of the text once you have typed it - don't panick. Right click and select Create Outlines (or go to Type > Create Outlines. (If you do that though you will not be able to edit the text again.)

If you just want to type new text then select the T (Type Tool) and Type the new text. If you want that new text to match the current text select your text and using the eyedrop tool click on the existing text and it will pick up the attributes.

HTH

 

[nosreba]

Thanks for the info. I found another .ai file where if i clicked on the text box the box was red ... the first file the text boxes were green. With these red text boxes i could simply right-click and select Outline and was good to go.

Don;t know the difference between green and red text boxes, but i'll figure it all out in due time. I just needed a quick answer so i could complete a doc for the boss.

Thanks again for your help!!

 

[itchybug]

Peter:

The colors indicate which layer artwork is on.
Double-click on the layer name and a box pops up that will allow you to customize.

HTH

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[vakohles]

The color of the selection is dependant on the Layers color attribute. The Layer of that particular document was Red verse the other files Green.

 

[itchybug]

Echo?

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[vakohles]

Yeah - I noticed that too. We apperntly have identical timing.