Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 10/2/2008

Question
QUESTION: I've dabbled in Adobe before, but with a new job I find myself knee-deep.  I'm sure this is elementary for you (I hope), but it's completely frustrating for me.  I'm using a table tent template in Illustrator CS2 v12.  It has some text in which the font has what I would call a shadow.  The main text is red, and the shadow text is blue.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to change the color of the "shadow".  I say "shadow" as that is what the style is called in Microsoft Word or Publisher.

ANSWER: Hi Rebecca,

There are two ways to create a drop shadow. One you can edit freely, the other creates a bitmap that you will have to delete and recreate.

Here's how to find out -open your appearance palette and select the text. If you see a drop shadow effect (FX) in the palette, double click that to edit the color.

However, if you select the text and the shadow is a separate object (has a rectangular selection around it that you can grab separately) then you will need to delete that. You can  recreate a new shadow selecting the text and using the EFFECTS menu (Effects>Stylize>Drop Shadow).

Hopefully this helps. If you get lost, let me know and I can step by step it for you.

Thanks

Kevin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I'm obviously having issues today.
Here's the attached file.

Answer
Hi Rebecca,

I did get this file. This is a little easier than I though.

Ok, heres what you do.

First - see if you can select the blue letters separately. If you can't you need to go to Object>Expand Appearance to change this into separate objects.

Then deselect your images and use the direct select tool (white arrow) to select the individual blue letters. Then go to your swatches palette and select black.

That should take care of it.

Thanks

Kevin