crop in illustrator

From klf:
Something for mat-illustrator-labor wot I just learned here (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/319423):

You know how you can crop things really easily in Photoshop but not in Illustrator?  This is a huge pain for figures with a lot of white space that you want to get rid of before submitting the figures for publication (e.g., for Matlab figures imported into Illustrator).  Here's a workaround in Illustrator that'll let you do what cropping does.

1. Open your big figure.  This figure includes some stuff you want to keep (e.g., data) and some stuff you want to get rid of (e.g., white space).
2. Create a shape on top of the figure the size and shape of the area you'd like to crop.  E.g., a rectangle.  Place it right over the stuff you want to keep.
3. Color that rectangle some color (e.g., white).  Doesn't matter what color.  Just make it something you can see.
4. Use the transparency palette to set the opacity of the rectangle to 0%.
5. Select the rectangle and the underlying figure.
6. Click on Object > Flatten transparency.  (Use 100% vector on the quality slider, and make sure the "Preserve alpha channel" box is unchecked.)
7. Ungroup the result.
8. Click on the things outside the rectangle and delete them.  Done!

adding arrowheads to lines

A long-standing source of frustration is adding arrowheads to lines just the way I want, or making a "nicer" looking arrow.

Here is an article
http://luanneseymour.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/creating-arrows-and-arrowheads-in-illustrator-cs6/

more illustrator tips

- Select more than one item, ctrl-J to join
- Use layers, make a layer for the fill, highlight something then drag the colored square from one layer to another. lock and view layers.
- AV: shortcut for black arrow
- A: arrow for white arrow
- P: shortcut for pen, bezier pen, add or remove points, hold for menu
-T: shortcut for text
- gradient tool, draw line in the direction of gradient, adjust top, bottom, and middle handles; view gradient menu to change from linear to radial. Need to have gradient swatch/swath available.
- To sub-script, need to click on the menu and "more options" in the character window

illustrator shortcuts

After decades of using Illustrator in a dumb way (okay maybe only 1.4 decades), I learned a few key points.

• If tracing an original, make it a layer, name it, and lock it.
• Make a new layer, name it, and draw on it. 
• Use shortcut Z, zoom
• Use shortcut V, arrow
• Use shortcut [space], hand
• Use the different "corner" options (near the stroke box) so they're not pointy or pointy.

I think that's all.