Easy Truly Personalized Return Address Labels in Adobe® Illustrator

Continued from Page Three

Making Changes

Oh, no. The instruction doesn't end with printing. I need to teach you how to make changes. After all, even with our names and addresses, typos happen. You might also like some variety-say a page of 30 Halloween labels featuring a witch, another page of 30 replacing the width with a black cat, 60 more with jack o' lanterns; maybe you want a couple of pages of labels featuring his dog and a couple of other pages of labels featuring her dog. Should you start all over at the top of this article, creating everything from scratch? Probably not, but let's be sure.

There are two kinds of changes you might want to make to your address labels-edits and complete replacements-and the strategies for accomplishing each with the least hassle (and most fun) differs.

The first type of change you might need to make is the most basic-fixing a typo or a other minor mistake. You want to keep the majority of the label designs intact, but you want to edit the text, change the font, swap out a photo or clipart, move things around a bit, or otherwise change only a part of the existing design. If we hadn't used symbols, you'd be making the same change to every label on the page-30 copies in my case-which may be fun for the first two or three, but gets tedious and error prone after that. Fortunately, we used symbols, so any change is a breeze.

Let's say we need to fix a mistake in the address… Actually, why should it be our mistake? Nah, let's say you and I did everything right, but that the Post Office went and changed the zip code, as they seem so eager to do every few years. We have to change the zip code on the return address labels-all 30 of them on the page. No problem.

1. On the Symbols panel click once on your label symbol to highlight it (an outline will appear about the symbol to denote that it's selected.)

2. At the top right corner of the Symbols panel is a button to access a flyout menu. Click it and choose the Edit Symbol command from the menu (see Figure 19).

3. When you choose the Edit Symbol command you'll be brought into a special editing mode and environment (see Figure 20). Your main document will be temporarily hidden, and in its place you see and have full access to all the objects that make up the symbol. In this case you'll be able edit your label again.

Versions of Illustrator prior to CS3 lacked the Edit Symbol command and the special symbol editing mode. You can still edit your symbols, however, it just requires a different method-it's still no muss, no fuss, though. (Note: Illustrator CS3 allows the below method in addition to the Edit Symbol command.)

4. Using the scrollbars or the Hand Tool, move your document window view around so you can see and work on a good sized portion of the pasteboard, which is the empty space around the artboard.

5. From the symbols panel drag another instance of your label symbol onto the pasteboard. Make sure it's far enough away from the objects on the artboard (page) that you can work without fear of accidentally affecting them.

6. What you've done is create another symbol instance, which still isn't editable-yet. At the top right corner of the Symbols panel is a button to access a flyout menu. Click it and choose the Break Link to Symbol command from the menu (see Figure 21). The Break Link to Symbol command breaks the association between the object you've just placed and the symbol; changes to one will not be automatically reflected in the other. By breaking the link to the symbol you're now able to edit the individual objects that comprise your label.

7. When you've finished editing the label as needed, select all the parts of it but without using CTRL+A/CMD+A. Using the Select All keyboard shortcut will select everything on the current layer, including all the symbol instances you're trying to update. You don't want to redefine the symbol to include itself 30 or so times because that will make Illustrator suffer a schizophrenic episode, corrupt your document, and crash your computer.

Instead of CTRL+A/CMD+A route, grab the Selection Tool. Starting well above and beside the parts of the label, click and drag in a rectangular area until you've covered all the parts of the label. As you drag you'll see a dotted line (a selection marquee) for reference (see Figure 22). When you release the mouse button all the objects touched by the rectangular area you've described will be selected.

8. Return to the Symbol panel's flyout menu and choose the command to Redefine Symbol. The symbol on the panel will then update to match the selected objects (presumably your edited label), and all the instances on the artboard will similarly reflect the changes instantly. Ta da! All done

Anything short of designing whole new labels is considered a minor edit (at least in the context of working with symbols in this fashion). If you've decided it's time to start anew on different labels, should you go through this entire process again? Gosh, no! Symbols make even a complete and total redesign much, much, much easier and faster!

Assuming you want to create a new design using the same label size and template as the first one you did, every subsequent design takes just less than half the time required by the first one-you probably won't even touch the Align and Transform panels.

1. Open the Illustrator .AI document containing an earlier return address label design created from this tutorial and using the same WorldLabel.com template as the new labels you'd like to create.

2. With the document open, go to the File menu and choose Save As. Save the document as a new file, named after the label design you're about to create. This will ensure that both your previous and new designs remain ready to use.

3. Move the document window around with the scrollbars or Hand Tool until you're looking primarily at the pasteboard. There you'll design your new label. Leave everything else-including the old label design symbol instances-as is in the document.

4. Design your new label. Remember to create the background rectangle, even if its white or empty; remember to set your address and to make everything legible. When you've finished designing the label, go back through the "Preparing the First Label" section to clean up everything and create a new symbol from the design (don't use the Redefine Symbol command we talked about just above). When you've finished you should have in the Symbols panel both your new label design and your old.

5. On the Symbols panel click once on the old design symbol to select it, and then, from the panel flyout menu, choose the Select All Instances command, which is about halfway down the menu (see Figure 23). Illustrator will automatically select all instances of that symbol, including the ones in the column groups.

6. Careful not to click anywhere on the artboard or pasteboard, thus deselecting all the selected instances, click once on the new label symbol in the Symbols panel. When it's highlighted, return to the Symbols panel flyout menu and choose the Replace Symbol command. Every instance of the old label symbol should instantly change to be the new label symbol.

If the dimensions of the old and new symbols are identical, all the instances on the artboard should properly aligned and positioned, ready for print. If there were any differences, and the images on the artboard are no longer aligned perfectly to the template guides, use the Transform and Align panels to fix them.

Yes, you can order personalized address labels from the flier in the Sunday paper and from a half dozen companies online, but your choices are always limited. With Adobe Illustrator, WorldLabel.com, some free fonts, and a little imagination, you can personalize your return address labels to your heart's content, printing only what you need, when you need it, instantly and with a heck of a lot more fun than you'll get from filling out a paper or online form and then waiting by the mailbox for 2-8 weeks.