Illustrator CS2 Killer Tips

When a Scatter brush's options are set at Random (rather than Fixed), you specify a range of numbers to determine the randomness of the Size, Spacing, Scatter, and Rotation settings. If you're editing these Random settings in the Scatter Brush Options dialog, you can make your life a little easier with these keys. Double-click your Scatter brush to get the dialog, then press-and-hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) to move the minimum and maximum percentage an equal distance apart for one of the settings. For example, if the Spacing slider is set to 100% Fixed and you choose Random in the pop-up menu, hold down Option/Alt and drag the triangle slider to change the minimum to 150% and the maximum to 50% (with nothing held down you'd have to move each slider independently). Once you've set the range you'd like to use, you can move the range higher or lower (while keeping the same distance between the sliders) by holding down the Shift key. (Careful, this last step can be a bit touchy. Try it out and you'll see what we mean.)