Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

the objects, but the layer as well. You could click one circle, and

then Shift-click the rest of them, but why take that much time?

The quickest way: Alt-click (or Option-click) the layer title area

(anywhere inside the orange area in Figure 2-36, other than the

meatball—your highlight color may be different). This selects

all the objects on the layer, but not the layer itself.

16.

Align the circles. Now that you have the circles selected, exam-

ine the control panel. You’ll see a group of align icons, circled

in Figure 2-37. The two you want for this step are horizontal

align centers (

) and vertical align centers ( ).

Click the

icon and then the icon. All the circles are now

concentric but unfortunately in the wrong place; press Ctrl+Z

twice (-Z on the Mac) to undo the alignment.

We need to make sure that all our circles align to the smallest

one, the only one in its proper position. To that end, Illustra-

tor lets you specify a key object, that is to say, an object against

which all others will be aligned. Still with the tool, click once

(and only once) on the smallest center circle. Illustrator high-

lights it with a thick orange stroke (or your color choice, if you

picked something different in Step 6 on page 52), indicating it

is now the key object. Again, click the

icon and then the

icon. Presto! All your circles are now aligned to the center of

the art and to each ot ...