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- [Voiceover] In this movie,

we're going to take a look



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at subcontainers inside of Illustrator.



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Now I showed you

sublayers a few movies ago



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which, as I've said, I

don't really care for



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because they tend to be a little messy.



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And we saw compound shapes

in the previous chapter



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which are great when you want



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to mix and match different shape modes



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such as add with minus

front, that kind of thing.



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But for day to day stuff,



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it's a question between

compound paths and groups.



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Compound paths are useful when

you want a group of objects



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to share the same fill

and stroke attributes,



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whereas groups are more

generalized containers



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that can hold standard

paths, compound paths,



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compound shapes, and other groups.



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And so currently, we've got

this unstroked text here.



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Ultimately, however, we

want it to look like this



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so that all the letters

are stroked with black



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or with white in a nice legible fashion



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so that the strokes don't

interrupt each other.



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And as things stand right now,



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that's not the effect we'd get,



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and I'll show you what I mean.



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I'll go ahead and switch back

over to the ungrouped text,



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and just to make it easier to select,



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I will Alt + click, or Option + click



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in the lock column for this text layer,



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and that way I can just

go ahead and marquee



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these purple bird letters right there



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and I'll press Ctrl + h

or Command + h on a Mac



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in order to hide the anchor points.



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And now I'll just go up

here to the control panel.



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Notice we have a bunch of compound paths,



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and that's what you get



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when you convert a character of text



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to path outlines inside Illustrator.



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And that's what allows the text to have



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these little holes inside of it.



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And so I'm just gonna change

the stroke weight here



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to 2.5 points like so, and I'll make sure



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that we have black selected

for the color, which we do.



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Now I'll click on the word Stroke,



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and I'll switch the stroke to outside,



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so we're going to align the

stroke to the outside like so,



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and then I'll go ahead

and change the corner



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to a round joint.



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And while that looks pretty good,



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that's not the effect I want



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because notice each and

every one of the letters



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is overlapping the letter before it.



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What I want is a shared stroke



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as we're seeing in this example here.



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Alright, so I'm going to go

ahead and switch back over here.



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What we need to do is

group the letters together



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and to demonstrate how that works



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I'll just go ahead and press Ctrl + z,



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or Command + z on a Mac,



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a few times in order to restore



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the original version of the document.



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What a lot of folks do is



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they establish groups and subgroups,



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so in other words after

I get done locking down



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all the other layers by

Alt or Option clicking



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in that second column in

front of the text layer,



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a lot of folks will just go ahead and say,



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okay, these guys want

to be grouped together



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and I'll press Ctrl + h,

or Command + h on a Mac



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to bring back the anchor points



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just so that you can see I have

all these letters selected,



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and then they might group those



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and then grab the top

letters and group them,



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and then grab both rows of text



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and group them together.



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So they have two groups

inside of a subgroup.



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Well, let me show you what

that looks like over here



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with the word Abilities.



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So let's say, obviously

I've made a kind of mistake



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because the ies: are the wrong color,



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but I'll just go ahead

and marquee these letters



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and press Ctrl + h, or

Command + h on a Mac



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to hide their anchor points.



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And then I'll twirl open the text layer,



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and you can see it's kind of a mess



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with just too many items inside of it,



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including all these letters here



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down near the bottom of the stack.



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If I go up to the Object

menu and choose Group,



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or of course I can press Ctrl

+ g, or Command + g on a Mac,



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then I have this thing called a group,



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by the way, that I can twirl open



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to access all the items inside of it.



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Which has its advantages,



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but that's not the way I'm gonna go,



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and let me show you why.



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I'll press Ctrl + z, or

Command + z on a Mac,



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to undo that change,



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and even though these guys

are a bunch of compound paths,



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I can put them into a

single compound path.



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I can basically fuse them

into one compound path



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as opposed to putting a

bunch of compound paths



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into another container.



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And so notice, if I go to the Object menu,



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choose Compound Path, and choose Make,



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or you've got that keyboard shortcut



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of Ctrl + 8, Command + 8 on a Mac.



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The 8 is significant in that it is



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the ultimate compound

path with two holes in it.



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I'll go ahead and choose that command,



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and notice what happened to the ies:



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They joined ranks with the other letters



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because you can only have one set



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of fill and stroke attributes associated



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with a compound path.



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Also notice here inside the layers panel,



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it does not twirl open



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and that's because insofar

as Illustrator is concerned,



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this is one path outline



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with a bunch of subpaths inside of it.



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If you want access to the subpaths,



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you can switch to the

wide arrow tool of course,



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or possibly more easily,



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you can just double-click

on one of these letters



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and now notice each one of these items--



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I'll press Ctrl + h,

or Command + h on a Mac



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to bring back the anchor points.



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Each one of these items

is its own subpath now.



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So we don't have a bunch



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of compound paths inside of another one,



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we just have one compound path.



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Which has a certain sleekness and elegance



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as we're about to see.



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Anyway, I'll just go ahead and escape out



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and I'll grab this guy right there,



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and as opposed to marqueeing

all these other path outlines,



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all I have to do is click

on Select Symbol or Objects



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to select all those guys,



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and then I'll combine them

into a single compound path.



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Witness here in the layers panel



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that there's a ton of paths

working together here.



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I'll combine them together

by pressing Ctrl + 8,



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or Command + 8 on a Mac,



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and we now have a single compound path.



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And now what I'll do is

group these guys together,



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and this time I need to use a group



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because we have different



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fill and stroke attributes going on



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and so if I want to maintain



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those fill and stroke attributes,



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then I have to go to the

Object menu and choose Group



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as opposed to choosing

that compound path command.



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And so I'll go ahead and do that



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by pressing Ctrl + g,

or Command + g on a Mac.



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Now we have a group

that you can twirl open



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and do with as you please.



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Alright, now I'm gonna press Ctrl + 0,



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or Command + 0 on a Mac to zoom out.



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I'll just go ahead and

marquee these letters



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'cause that is after all the easiest thing



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to do at this point.



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And notice here in the layers panel



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that it's a big mess, there's

tons of letters sitting here.



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I'll press Ctrl + 8,

or Command + 8 on a Mac



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in order to fuse them together



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into a single compound path,



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this guy up here at the top of the stack.



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And then I'll marquee these letters



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and press Ctrl + 8, or

Command + 8 on a Mac



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in order to fuse them into

a single compound path.



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And then I'll just Shift

+ click on the second row,



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the yellow letters, and

I'll go to the Object menu



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and choose Group, or press Ctrl + g,



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or Command + g on a Mac

in order to combine them



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into a single group that I can twirl open



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and modify as I like.



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Alright, one more thing I

want you to note about groups.



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I'm going to go ahead and

click off those path outlines



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to deselect them,



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and I will twirl open the

Abilities group right here.



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And let's say this guy I decide



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doesn't want to be in a group anymore.



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I don't even have to target him,



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I'll go ahead and deselect him there.



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I can just drag him.



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I can just grab this and

drag him out of the group



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and he's no longer part of the group.



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And as you can see, if I click on him,



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he is independently selectable.



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If you decide to get rid



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of the last item in a group,



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like this right here,



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then the group will automatically dissolve



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as you saw just happen.



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If you don't want that to occur,



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then press Ctrl + z,

or Command + z on a Mac



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in order to undo that change.



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And if you then decide you want this guy



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to be part of this group,



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you can just drag him and drop him onto it



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and now he's in that first group



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which is no good, that's not what I want.



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So I'll press Ctrl + z,

or Command + z on a Mac



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to undo that change.



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And instead I'll drag him and drop him



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into this group.



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And I can even change the stacking order



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of items inside of individual groups



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just by dragging them here

inside the layers panel



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after which point I'll go ahead



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and press Ctrl + Shift + a,



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or Command + Shift + a on a Mac



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to deselect my artwork.



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Alright, so that's the primary distinction



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between compound paths

which are sleek, elegant,



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and possess shared fill

and stroke attributes,



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and groups which are

free-for-all containers.



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But there's more, as we're about to see



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in the next movie.