ILLUSTRATOR Ch. 1, 2 AND 3: what you need to know

 

Ch. 1
Adding shapes, repositioning them and resizin them (p. 534)
Finding or changing the shape's dimension using the Transform pane: Windows/Transform or SHIFT F8l (p. 535)
Show rulers (p. 535)
Rotating and shearing (p. 536)
Constraining a shape (holding down the shift key to maintain aspect ratio) (p. 537)
Make a perfect circle (holding down the shift key while using the ellipse tool)
Entering exact dimensions (Illustrator/Preferences/Units) INCHES to PIXELS, etc. (p. 538)
...select shape tool, click anywhere on the artboard, and enter exact dimensions. (p. 539)
Selecting artwork ("you need to select it to affect it") (p. 540)

Three main selection tools: Selection tool, Direct Selection tool, Group Selection tool. (p. 540)
Shift/Select: select numerous items (p. (p. 542)
Group: Object/Group (groups selected items) (p. 542)
Shift + Command + A = Deselects everything (p. 543)
Isolation Mode: Double-click a group using the selection tool (p. 544)
Using shape and transform tools to create artwork (p. 544)
Transform Tools: A: Rotate; B: Warp; C: Scale; D: Free Transform; E: Shear; F: Reshape; G: Width. G: Additional Warp tools(pp. 545- )

Adding fill color (p. 546)
Locking objects (Object/Lock/Selection) (p. 546)
Modifying a shape (p. 546)
Changing color immediately to WHITE: "D" (p. 547)
Creating rays of light: (p. 549)
Outline view (when finding objects that are white, against white background) View/Outline (p. 548)
Command D = Repeat the transformation.
Select/Same/Fill Color
Using Layers (p. 551-552)
Cutting and pasting objects (p. 553)
Object/Arrange/Bring to front (or back) (p. 554)
Creating and cloning bubbles..Alt + Click (p. 555-7)

Ch. 2
Appearance panel (p. 564)
Changing colors with the appearance panel (p. 565)
Adding effects with the appearance panel (p. 566)
Creating a colorful illustration (p. 568)...a gotcha here is making sure you build all the circles WITH fills and then remove the fills later; THEN apply the Live Paint Bucket tool.
Converting the artwork to a Live Paint group: Shape Builder Tool/Live Paint Bucket Tool (p. 571-2)
Adding a symbol to your artwork: Window/Symbols (p. 573)
Expanding the symbol (which allows you to edit elements of the symbol): Object/Expand (p. 574)
Saving Swatches (p. 575)
Global Color (p. 576)
Selecting the Same Color (Use Group Selection tool; Select/Same/Fill Color)...to select all the colors that are of that hue (p. 577)

Ch. 3
Working with the Pen Tool (pp. 586 +)
Pen tool variations (p. 586)
Command + Click = release the pen tool from drawing points.
Holding down the SHIFT key means the pen tool will draw in a straight line
Live Trace (pp. 606-613)

DRAWING using the brush and pencil tools
Exporting to a .png file