Illustrator Cs6 Vs Ancient Version Of Coreldraw

[nellypope]

I used CorelDraw years ago when working as an art editor, I truly believed it was just the 'Mickey Mouse' kids version of Adobe Illustrator. Now years later I have started working again, but now have a Mac (no recent versions of CorelDraw now as Corel cease to make it for the Mac) and I am running the latest version of Illustrator, and although its vastly updated to what I used to use, there are still loads of options I have discovered it can't do, where Corel could. So I'm going to sound like a right idiot, and I have scoured the internet and Adobe support communities, but someone please tell me there is a transparency tool that I can click and drag over a shape . . . please??

CorelDraw had this great tool where, say I drew a big red box, I could then click on this transparency tool, click anywhere on the big red box, then drag the transparency tool to another point in the box (or even outside it) in any direction and it would instantly create transparency gradient. I cant find any such tool in Illustrator, without have to create a gradient, set the angle, then adjust the second colour by making it opaque, its just not particularly user friendly in an interactive way.

[nellypope]

Also, why cant you edit in 'real time' for instance say I'm setting an awkward angle for a gradient to run, in Corel you could drag the mouse pointer over the gradient in the dialog box and set the angle that way, you could see it move, but with Illustrator it's as if I have get my protractor out and set it manually. I want to see things change as I initialise changes. Someone out there tell me they have the same problems ;-)

[bazwillrun]

You must be doing something wrong.
If you draw a box on screen, if you click on the gradient tool from the toolbar on the right and apply the gradient the "gradient live toolbar" should appear over the object and it shows the colour stops etc.
Grabbing the various little boxes on the live toolbar allows you to control the angle by dragging in real time, the colour stops are also shown, so you can change colours etc live on the fly.

[bazwillrun]

Heres a good video, that shows you the basics, theres tons more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enk4xMVrLtk

[bazwillrun]

My apologies...youre right it doesnt do a transparency, all the years i've used it I've never made a transparent gradient, always used Photoshop , Indesign and Fireworks for them. Cant believe it doesnt do them, but it doesnt

Its still possible but you have to use transparency masks etc.

Mind you thats Adobe in a nutshell ! I make tons of gradients in Photoshop but cant use them in Indesign without imoorting them to Illustrator and and then exporting to Indesign !

[nellypope]

Thanks Baz, I appreciate your answers :-) but is a real pain. I think what Im after is a vector based drawing package that's as technically able as Illustrator but as user friendly as Corel. I will call CorelStrator.

I am writing them a stern message now ;-)

Thanks again

[bazwillrun]

Ok, I must be going crazy here.
Re-installed and upgraded Illustrator.

http://tinypic.com/r/2sbpfgj/5
There are transparency gradients that need to be loaded from the defaults library. (see linked pic)
Its actually a breeze to apply a gradient with transparency and tweak it in real-time, change the colours and opacity and position of the stops all from that one "bar".
Even in Corel unless you wanted the default transparency youd have to set up the colour opacity levels and stops, so i'd say this is just as quick now and with all the controls without opening other panels to do it.

[nellypope]

Thankyou Baz :-)