Points & Paths

Illustrator Questions Answered on Pointsandpaths.com is a regular feature that provides answers to common Illustrator questions I’ve seen asked by my students, by people online, by colleagues and by voices unseen which, basically, means me talking to myself.

Here’s the issue: You’ve been working on a project that calls for a few effects such as drop-shadows and glows. Some time later you’ve decided that instead of gray shadows on the objects, you want to use blue (it could happen!). You would be mistaken to think that you just need to select the object and go back to the drop-shadow effect in the Effects menu as here’s what you would see in attempting to do so.

Clearly, not the way to go. The solution, though, is stated in the messaging.

What to do? Click the Cancel button and open the Appearance panel and select the drop-shadow effect. Personally, though, I’d rather see an Edit Effect option displayed here that takes me right to the selected effect in the Appearance panel. Alas, let’s click Cancel and open the panel.

Here’s where the action takes place. As you can see, I’ve highlighted the effect.

To make changes to the drop-shadow effect, simply double-click the listing in this panel. The options for the effect will appear.

Once you’ve made changes, click OK and you’re on your way.

If you want to temporarily hide an effect on an object, click the Eye icon to the left of the effect name.

Got a question that needs answering? Or have a question you’ve seen asked over and over? Let me know and I’ll find a solution… if there is one!