How To Avoid Frustration When Learning Adobe Illustrator

During our Adobe training courses, we have come to realise that one of our tasks is to rid people of the belief that Illustrator is a difficult program to learn. We find that new users to Adobe Illustrator will often moan that they find the program complex. To solve this problem, there are three main things that we like to point out to everyone who attends our Illustrator classes.

To start with, we show them how to read and understand the extensive visual clues provided by the software as you perform various operations. Next, we keep reminding new users how easy it is to revert your drawing back to the way it was before things started going wrong. And, finally, we keep telling our students that they have to highlight the right tool to be able to perform a give operation.

Illustrator beginners will often hit a roadblock where they are unable to carry out a certain operation because Illustrator will not permit it at that point in time or under the current circumstances. For example, they might want to change the size of an object and they end up rotating or moving it around the page instead.

Avoiding this problem is simple. Always ensure that you are on the right tool. So, if you wish to manipulate an existing element, you must have the Selection tool highlighted. One of the first shortcuts that we teach people who attend our Illustrator training courses is that you can temporarily activate the Selection tool by simply holding down the Control key (or Command on a Mac).

Another thing that new users do is attempt to modify elements in their drawing without clicking on the Selection tool first. One example might be they draw a shape using, say, the Polygon tool and then, with the Polygon tool still active, they attempt to move or resize the polygon they have just drawn or click on the page to deselect the polygon. They then get annoyed and puzzled when tiny polygons keep appearing in their drawing or Illustrator’s shape dimension window keeps on popping up.

Avoiding this problem is not hard. You just have to make sure that you have the right tool selected. So, if you want to manipulate an existing object, you just ensure that you have the Selection tool highlighted. One of the first shortcuts that we teach people who come on our Illustrator training courses is that you can temporarily activate the Selection tool by just pressing the Control key (or Command for Mac users).

When manipulating objects, Illustrator newbies will often forget to first highlight the Selection tool. For example, they will draw a shape with, say, the Line tool and then, while the Line tool is still highlighted, they will attempt to move or resize the line they have just drawn or perhaps click on the page to deselect the line. They are then bemused and cross when little lines keep appearing on the page or Illustrator’s shape dimension window keeps on popping up.

If your effort to create a drawing has gone completely wrong, the best thing to do is to accept defeat and choose the Revert command from the File menu. This is a way of admitting “This just isn’t working. I submit!” The Revert command abandons all of the modifications you have made to the document since it was last saved and can be another useful way of avoiding user headaches.