Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 12/19/2007

Question
QUESTION: I've been trying to do this for a while now. I need to take an object with an outline and convert the object and the outline into one single object (the selection will be around the outside of the outline only).  It's like welding the outline to the object.  Also, will this apply to text with outlines?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Dean

ANSWER: You can try to use the pathfinder palette. Select both the object and the outline and use the add to shape area. This will work with outlined text as well, but you have to have them ungrouped without compound paths. This is meant for simpler objects.

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QUESTION: Unless maybe you didn't describe it in enough detail, that didn't work.  I have a word with a stroke of 2 and I want to turn the stroke to an outline so I can have a letter behind thats filled but 2 larger all the way around.  Sorry, kind of hard to describe.

Answer
Thats ok. Select your text, and create outlines so you have a shape with a 2pt stroke. Then while its selected as an object, go to object>expand and expand the fill and stroke.

The stroke will then become an object that you can fill with whatever you need. The fill will remain in the background. Hope this helps.