Selections in Illustrator— The Object that Won’t Select

Typically, when you select in object in Illustrator, you see 2 elements identifying the object is selected: edges and a bounding box.

Edges are the colored lines in the shape of the path. The Bounding Box is the rectangular region surrounding the selected object(s). Either of these items can be turned off, and when the document is closed it remembers the setting…

Why you should care: It is possible to turn off both the Edges and the Bounding Box. This means you, innocent illustrator user, could be struck by the object that won’t select!

Both of these settings are found in the Veiw menu. So, if you encounter the object that won’t select, you know how to turn on the viewing options!

CS3 Now Shipping!

According to Adobe, the Design and Web editions of the Creative Suite 3 are now shipping!

InDesign and Friends Don’t Wanna Play

When images and art have been placed in InDesign, the Edt Original command is designed to open the original image in the correct authoring program, ie. photos open in Photoshop, vector art opens in Illustrator.

Note: On Windows alt+double-click, on Mac option+double-click is the shortcut to Edit Original.

The operating system controls what application launched though. So if you find that double-cliking a .jpg from the desktop opens Preview or a different image editor, the same thing will happen from InDesign.

The solution is to teach the operation system what program to launch for each specific file type. I will use .jpg as an example, but the same process can be used for each file type.

Mac:
In the Finder, locate a .jpg. Select it and press command i (or right-click, get info).
Expand Open with, select Photoshop, click Change All…

Windows:
Use Windows Eplorer to locate a .jpg. Right-click the icon and choose Properties.
Click Change next to Opens with and choose Photoshop (be sure “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” is checked)

Illustrator CS3: It’s the little things…

How many times have you been needing to edit a path in Illustrator with the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and missed the anchor point because it is a total guessing game where the point is until you click it? Maybe you are joining two end points, which have to be selected by themselves, but you miss the second one and then have to start over again? Sure you could wait for the “tiny square” to change color, if you have the vision of a hawk, but really who can see that?

It’s always the little things that excite me with upgrades… Illustrator CS3 now “lights up” the anchor points when you hover! This is one of those features that your not going to see big marketing events around, but I an diggin’ it!

Illy lovers everywhere rejoice! Save the clicks!

Ride ‘em Cowboy

It is Easter Sunday, and I am currently in Lincoln, NE. I was teaching at TechEd Solutions last week, and have a few more classes next week. As it turns out, it is not super easy to get flights back and forth from Miami to Lincoln, so I ended up here for the weekend.

My friends here decided to take me out last night to see a bit of the town. We ended up at country and western bar called Uncle Ron’s Wild West Saloon. Now I am not a fan of country and western music, so I had never been in a place quite like this. There was a band playing named Canyon Run, and the lead singer, Sheila Greenland, was awsome. There were some very good dancers (who knew line dancing looked so cool), but my favorite part had to be the mechanical bull!

Yes, folks, I rode the mechanical bull. They went easy on me, but as you can see, I didn’t last very long!

Celebrating Helvetica

Unbelievable. It’s all over the news. Helvetica (yes, the typeface) is having a birthday. Helvetica turns 50 this year!

Can you believe there is a movie about type? You can watch a clip of the feature length film.

Helvetica does have beautiful form, but as one of the most commonly selected typefaces has a sort of bad rap. How can you argue when companies like American Airlines, BMW and Harley-Davidson use it for their identities?

Easter Egg Hunt (InDesign Style!)

With the time of year, it feels appropriate to talk about some fun Easter Eggs in InDesign.

Easter egg: An Easter egg is an unexpected surprise, perhaps a message, an image, or a sound, hidden in a Web site or in an application program.

There are a handful, but my favorites are the Stroke Styles which will turn your strokes into pictures (a la Brushes in Illustrator.)

To create:
In the Stroke palette menu, select Stroke Styles…
In the dialog Box, click New…
Change the Style Name to Feet (note: must be capital F)
Click OK
Click OK, again
Select an object, and change the Stroke Style to
Change the stroke weight to a rather large size (30 or 50 points)
et voila!

Also try the following names:
Woof
Lights
Happy
Rainbow (this one requires the Type to be set to Stripe)

In case you haven’t heard…

Adobe has officially announced The Creative Suite 3. It now comes in 3 flavors, 2 varieties and 1 death-by-chocolate:

• Design Premium
  • InDesign CS3
  • Photoshop CS3 Extended
  • Illustrator CS3
  • Flash CS3 Professional
  • Dreamweaver CS3
• Web Premium
  • Dreamweaver CS3
  • Flash CS3 Professional
  • Photoshop CS3 Extended
  • Illustrator CS3
  • Fireworks CS3
  • Contribute CS3
• Production Premium
  • After Effects CS3 Professional
  • Adobe Premier Pro CS3
  • Photoshop CS3 Extended
  • Flash CS3 Professional
  • Illustrator CS3
  • Soundbooth CS3

The Design and Web bundles will also com in a Standard variety. Which have slightly fewer applications each.

Then there is the Master Collection which comes with a total of 14 (yes, 14) point products!

All of these Suites also come packaged with: Bridge, Version Cue, Device Central and Adobe Stock Photos.

(Whew, anyone else’s brain hurt yet?)

Then, there’s pricing (all pricing is US)…

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium—$1,799.00 Upgrade from $440.00
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard—$1,199.00 Upgrade from $240.00
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium—$1,599.00 Upgrade from $340.00
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard—$999.00 Upgrade from $399.00
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium—$1,699.00 Upgrade from $799.00
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection—$2,499.00 Upgrade from $1,399.00

Then there’s also educational pricing for those of you who qualify…

Now when can we expect all this?

I found references of a ship date of April 20th for the Design Suite Premium here and here.

Would Stock?

Image Resources

There are plenty of stock image websites out there—some better than others. I have always been a fan of istockphoto, but sometimes, when I need a LOT of images, I like going with a subscription service. I have tried several services, and my current favorite is shutterstock. Shutterstock has super hi-res images; with a subscription, 25 downloads per day are allowed.

What are your favorite stock photo sites?

April Events

Adobe Day—Discover the Possibilities of Adobe!
Lincoln, NE
April 4, 2007 8:30am–12:00pm

Tech Ed Solutions is hosting free informational seminars about the Adobe family of products. Join us on April 4th. We will discuss the Adobe Creative Suite, the Acrobat Family and Adobe Connect. Learn what products are available, which products to use for your projects, and what they can do. Adobe Certified Experts Angie Okamoto and Kacey Crouch will be our presenters.

Agenda:
8:30am-9:45am-The Adobe Creative Suite Overview with Kacey Crouch
9:45am-10:00am-Break for coffee and donuts
10:00am-11:15am-The Acrobat Family of Product with Angie Okamoto
11:15am-11:45am-Adobe Connect with Angie & Kacey
11:45am-12:00pm-Q & A

Adobe Acrobat User Group—Omaha, NE
Wednesday April 4, 2007
5:30-8:00pm

Ag Processing – Omaha
12700 West Dodge Road
Omaha, NE 68154

PDFs for Print
Special Guest Speaker Kacey Crouch, Adobe Certified Expert & Adobe Certified Instructor
The Portable Document Format is everywhere. PDFs can make printers jolly with glee when created properly, or curse like a sailor when put together haphazardly. In the session, learn how to talk to your printer and understand the requirements to print a top-notch job. Dive deep into the presets available in Distiller and other Adobe applications to know the gotcha’s to watch for.

Digital Days by Sony—Miami, FL
April 29, 2007
9:00am–5:00pm

Whether you’re a novice or a pro or even if you don’t own a digital camera, there’s plenty to learn from Sony’s trained experts, who provide in-depth and hands-on demonstrations featuring the latest in digital imaging technology and software.