CS4 Quicktip: Pathfinder

November 09, 2008

Illustrator

While the Pathfinder functions themselves have not changed inside of Illustrator CS4, what has changed is their default behavior… and this might cause some confusion. In previous versions of Illustrator you could select two shapes and click a Pathfinder button to create a compound shape…

Pathfinder

However if you perform the same steps in Illustrator CS4, you won’t get a compound, but an already expanded shape. In order to create compound shapes, just hold down the option (alt) key and click the respective button in the Pathfinder panel. Voilà…

54 comments

I am diggin the new way it behaves! I was really getting tired of having to hit "expand" every time I used Pathfinder. The new standard works so much better for me. All the best from bonn, Oliver

oliver

I knew you had more of them! :) Seriously, consider creating hot ebook with your tips, that could give you more traffic and fame (and money possibly?) :) </br> -- Dom Noclegowy Szczecinek

Tanie Pokoje w Szczecinku

Hmmm.... nice article :)

Nazo

Ein verdammt guter Grund für das kommende Update!! Es ist immer wieder spannend die neuesten Entwicklungen von Adobe zu testen.

Robert

This is a great tip, it is so irrating click menus and buttons, takes soooo much longer than hot-keying especially in adobe Illustrator!

Icoste Shopping

el señor nircio jesus rojas cedula 001047072-6 me estafo vendiendo como ajente de viaje una oferta de una vacaciones y me dijo que se lo depositara en un banco el valor de $5,200.00pesos que era la ofertra luego me llamo para decir k la reservacion no la avia podido confirmar el mismo dia k me tocava ingresar y luego no coje el celular y no me ha devuelto el dinero y ya son dos semanas en espera. y lo mejor es k vendio la oferta a nombre de el hotel coral costa caribe y llame al hotel y me di la sorpresa k el no esta relacionado lavoralmente con ellos y k no trabaja para ellos entonces esta poniendo el nombre de ese hotel por el suelo y estafando gente .

guillermo familia

It's very difficult to learn all CS4 options. But thanks to your quicktips I learn it rapidly. Thanks

ultimas noticias

thank you.:)

evden eve nakliyat izmir

nice tip! it will save me time for sure... thanks

33700 th guy

I still have not got the 4. But glad that I found your tips. It will save lot of time when eventually I get it. Thanks :)

John

I use this a lot, & prefer how it behaves now :)

Jono

This was a good move IMO... It allows you to have more flexibility with the design. The previous method made it hard to expand the shape. Now you can do both quickly and easily!

Good ideas

Thanks!

Thomas

I think the new behavior is more natural.

Fotograf

I LOVE the ALT key! This gives me one more reason. Thanks for the tip.

Jillian

thanks...

motorlu panjur

Oeh nice article. Keep well :)

Definite Web Hosting

Great resource. Thanks for the guide.

Games

Everything is simple:)

Gif - master

A goog thing to know, thanks ^^

Buzzle

Good article, thanks !

Google

Very good i love it :D

Grossiste

wooohoo. im sure ill love this on my next cs4-ready laptop. cheers.

Tim @ deine-wandtattoos.de

Thanks for the tip. I was quite confused at the beginning. But I am glad, that they made this change, since it's easier and faster to work with it, now. @ Google, your "goo goo gle gle search engine" is really funny:) ^^

Billigflug

One awesome shortcut, thanks!

Janie Parrish

Klasse Tipp! Danke

Alice

I dont like the new behavior, at least I dont like it while playing CS4 at my friend's computer. How do you find new Adobe soft overall, is the upgrade worth of the money anyway? </br> http://robakdesign.com/

Bart?omiej Rutkowski

Thanks for the information!

Hochzeitsfotograf

Netter Tip.

Tim

Toller Tipp! Vielen Dank

SV-Irxleben

Yes it's a good article. Thanks for this

Maki

Thanks for the information

??????? ??????

This looks like a very useful feature!

Personal Coach Hamburg

I am a newbie to illustrator but thanks to people like you working with the program can become a pure pleasure. Thank you for your your open and helpful attitude!

Piotr

Cool tip! Thanks for this…

Ton

Thanks, you have saved me hours of googling and trial by error combinations. Good work.

Dan

Honestly, I opened up illustrator CS4 just yesterday and I was lost. I was never really good at Illustrator to begin with, but I was having more issues than I honestly wanted to contend with. I guess it's time to upgrade the brain hehe. Wolfgang, Can you recommend some good reading and/or sites (tutorial based) for the new CS4 GUI? Rob

SasaVtech

Vielen Dank für den Artikel

Gen

Thanks for this quick learning tip.

Shruti

as usual nice work guys! respect!

Little caprice

Thanks, Wolfgang. Useful tip, although I find transition from CS3 to CS4 pointless.

Nijedan od ponu?enih odgovora

Thanks a lot Wolfgang i have been searching for this all day!

Livret A

Thanx for this small but very useful tip!