Illustrator CS2 Killer Tips

To quickly increase or decrease the leading, select text with either the Selection (V) or Type (T) tool and press Option-Up or Down Arrow (PC: Alt-Up or Down Arrow). At first it might seem a little counter-intuitive because the Down Arrow key increases leading (in most palette fields, the Down Arrow makes values smaller). But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense increased leading makes the second line of type move down, therefore we use the Down Arrow key to increase leading. Here's where it gets a little weird: If you click in the Leading field in the Character palette, the Up and Down Arrow keys work like all the other fields, so you would press the Up Arrow key to increase leading! It's all very logical really it is!