Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 7/30/2008

Question
I am trying out illustrator CS3 and I have never used illustrator before but i do have a lot of experience with photoshop.  I saw another question and answer posted about the history palate not being available on illustrator but that you can use the control + Z command as many times but is there a way to go forward as well as backward in the history.  For example, in photoshop you can go back however many steps and then you can click forward to the spot in history that you were at before on the history palate to toggle between the two spots to see which way you liked it better. Is there anyway to do this in illustrator?  One more question.  In photoshop you can double click on the color palate on the tool bar (or anywhere for that matter) and when the color picker screen comes up you can go to the image you are working on and the cursor turns to an eye dropper and you can pick the same color as something in the design.  I can't figure out a way to do this in illustrator.  If you can not do it this way then how do you create new objects in a file with the same color as another object in the file.

Thank you for your help

Answer
Hi Sarah,

You can use ctrl+Z and shift+Ctrl+Z to toggle back and forth in history. Since there isn't a history palette, this function is linear, in other words, no jumping between undo states.

To pick a color, you would use the eyedropper tool in the tool bar to pick up an existing color. Select the item you wish to color, then using the eyedropper, click on the original item. Illustrator will automatically keep the same settings of the last item you created (stroke, fill) when you create the next item.

Thanks

Kevin