This book has some very good, practical lessons for bringing the novice up to speed as well as the seasoned pro to the latest new features. I’d give it an A+. Being able to follow along on the enclosed DVD (which, of course, you can stop at will to practice a certain step repeatedly) as well as review with the text is an excellent way to “sharpen the saw” and keep up to date with current design/production demands.

Enabled to do the multiple strokes option (with the Offset feature) you can create one object, instead of three separate ones. This is helpful when creating symbols which can be saved to the Symbols Palette. These saved items can be placed in 3D objects that you can generate and then place your own pattern.

  Creating an artwork from the ground up, is very important because it influences how easily changes can be made to that same piece of artwork in the future. The narrarator of these tutorials has referred to this process, appropriately referred to as “clean building”. 

A Global Color simply means that if you select an object and change it’s color, the “attached” append- ages changes also. Using Live Paint, one can add different fill and outline colors to specific areas of an object efficiently.

Customized Gradients can be made and saved to the open swatch palette. That’s nothing new but, if you want to make a new gradient and replace all of the existing gradients “globally,” you can then option click on the new one and drag and drop over the one you want to change in the palette.

The Pen Tool Exercises are a MUST for anyone simply because you might have “built in” ways of drawing an object.

Since those ways have changed with the development of Illustrator through the versions, it may prove extremely helpful to review these pen tool exercises!

The ability to apply a global change in a type change might be the single greatest addition to Illustrator 4. Specifically, being able to take one type attribute, such as a sub-head, and make a Global change to all the sub-heads using the Type Style Guides.

Managing Layers (just like in Photoshop) by grouping and essentially Labeling Layers in related Naming Conventions is a milestone in Hierarchy object building! The control over this multitude of elements is notable with its practical ability to create Labeled folders for each object!!!!

Being able to save commonly used artwork as a Symbol and Globally update all of them when a change is made to the original art is a great practical tool. Symbols themselves can be made with one basic shape (mathematically precise) that is duplicated, distorted, etc. under the Appearance Panel (as opposed to creating an object out of several different shapes and tools, grouping, etc.).  This Object can then be Dragged and Dropped to the open Symbols Palette for re-use.

Using Effects is mainly about a better method of building a piece of art using the Transform dialog box. This allows you to duplicate and place part of an object with mathematical accuracy. Unlike building each individual piece and grouping, objects made this way remain ALL ONE PATH. You can then efficiently Live Paint individual enclosed areas of this path.

Saving multiple versions for client approval may take a real change in routine but could prove invaluable if client approval is part of one’s weekly work routine. Clients will now have the ability to view several different ideas generated from one PDF sent with Acrobat Layers enabled. This has different security features offered too.

After designating two points of an object into two different colors, you can select Object/ Blend/ Make to blend one object into the next. Colors from your customized Color Swatch Libraries can be drag and dropped straight into the two boxes in the Gradient Palette. The Eye-Dropper tool can be used to distribute one gradient to other objects. The Lasso Tool can now be used for accurate point selection. Combining this with hide features is a very smart work method. It’s really helpful if you’ve made an object into a gradient mesh.

Move Document Groups is a feature that Windows users have used for years. It makes it easier to organize your workspace and flip from one to the next. This is a real blessing if you have the habit of clicking on the finder background when moving between documents. 

New gradient Tool allows you to change the colors gradient right on the object without having to open and drag-and-drop colors from one palette to another. You also have the option to open up a dialogue box to control the gradient with mathematical precision.

Smart Guides allow greater control over measuring and lining-up objects, both by their horizontal and vertical centers. A tiny dialogue box (hence Smart Guide) appears with the X and Y axis’ visible while objects are being moved.

Illustrator 4 now has the ability to make multiple art boards on one document page. This of coarse allows you to see several layouts at once and print only selected art boards under the print dialogue box.