Take Advantage of Smart Guides

The Smart Guides feature assists you in selecting objects and moving and aligning them. Smart Guides function as a selection aid because they tell you when you are hovering over a line anchor, line segment, or other object that can be tricky to zero in on without some help. To use Smart Guides, open the View menu and make sure Smart Guides is selected.

Smart Guides are especially useful with the Direct Selection tool, since you use that tool to select elements of an object instead of the whole object. Figure 11-4 shows Smart Guides assisting in the selection of an anchor within an illustration.

Figure 11-4: Smart Guides identify the 135 degree angle at which the fish is being moved

Smart Guides also help you move or copy existing objects while keeping them aligned. When you move an object with Smart Guides turned on, the guides indicate when your object has been moved horizontally, vertically, or at a 45-degree angle. If you hold down SHIFT as you drag, you constrain your move to 45-degree increments .