Hi

I'm a new user of Adobe Illustrator 10 and despite the on-line help
and user manual etc. I'm know I'm not getting the most out of the
product.

I'm using it in a fairly simple mode to create office letter heads
etc. Nothing too sophisticated.

I don't want to spend more money on textbooks etc. but I am hoping
that there are some FREE downloadable training guides or tutorials
that I can use to imporove by skills.

I'm pretty computer literate generally - I just don't know much about
the Adobe range of products.

Can you provide me with some good links to downloads that I can use to
improve my skills - with an emphasis on "condensed" or "idiots guide"
type materials?

Greetings afl,

When you refer to the 'on-line help' in your first paragraph,
would this be in reference to the Adobe Illustrator Expert Center,
available at:

http://studio.adobe.com/expertcenter/illustrator/main.html  ,
once free registration for an Adobe ID has been completed, at:
http://studio.adobe.com/expertcenter/main.html

The following page presents 13 well laid out, simple
'step-by-step' tutorials demonstrating various aspects
of Illustrator, including button creation, spazzing,
flash integration, text style manipulation, photoshop
integration, hairy brushes and more:

Nelson's Freelance tutorials section
http://www.nelsonsfreelance.com/tutorial/index.html

ThinkDan.com:
Excerpt:
"Welcome to the Illustrator Tutorials page. Below you will find many
tutorials covering various aspects of Illustrator. Tutorials are
always being added so keep checking back.
Each tutorial comes with a PDF version of it, you can use this version
to print off copies and read them later, this is also convenient for
people that have restricted internet times and cannot be on all the
time."
http://www.thinkdan.com/tutorials/illustrator.html

Lineart Tutorial for Adobe Illustrator:
http://www.bakaneko.com/howto/set2/illustrator/index.html

About.com presents a series of seven Illustrator tutorials at the
following URL:

http://graphicdesign.about.com/library/tutorials/blillustrator.htm?once=true&
These tutorials are, however, based upon Illustrator 8.

About.com also presents a series of links to tutorial sites:

Illustrator Tutorials - Basics and Setup
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/illustratorbasics/

Discussion - based learning resources:

Often, it is useful, rather than simply following a tutorial, to also
be able to ask questions & swap ideas, so I have located the following
information for you. Whilst not 'downloadable tutorials' in
themselves,
I beleive these forum and newsgroup style resources would be of use to
you..

There exist three public usenet newsgroups at which you may ask
and answer Illustrator-related questions, swap ideas, so on
and soforth, depending upon your needs and operating system.
These may be accessed via Google Groups:

Group: adobe . illustrator . windows 
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=adobe.illustrator.windows

Group: adobe . illustrator . macintosh 
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=adobe.illustrator.macintosh

Group: adobe . illustrator . featurerequests 
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=adobe.illustrator.featurerequests


Here are some Web Forums discussing Adobe Illustrator:

Postforum.com's Adobe Illustrator forum:
Forums > Graphics > Adobe Illustrator
http://www.postforum.com/forums/list.php?f=49

Tek-Tips forums:
Home > Forums > Programmers > Graphics & Web Tools > Adobe:
Illustrator Forum
http://www.tek-tips.com/gthreadminder.cfm/lev2/4/lev3/31/pid/226

Adobe user to user forums:
Forum: Illustrator Windows
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.ee6b328
(login as guest, or register for free)

tutorialforums.com's Vector Art & Illustration forum:
Tutorial Forums > Software > Vector Art & Illustration 
http://www.tutorialforums.com/forumdisplay.php?s=e226655e985778f4ff9dfde675e6d38a&forumid=7


Search Strategy:
Searchterms used in Google search engine:

adobe illustrator 10 tutorial
illustrator 10 tutorial
illustrator forum
illustrator step-by-step
illustrator step-by-step download OR on-line OR free -book -price
-cost


Hope this helps.

Please do not hesitate to ask for clarification, if you should require
further information, before rating.

gan

This is just the sort of answer that GA is going to be great for

It would have taken me at least an hour to do this research myself

As a small owner managed business, my time is best spent earning fees.
The ability to deelgate some research tasks will really help.

Thanks once again

I am in heaven, !!!  In my new course I will no longer have problems
following instructions, I am learning this new program, it is sooo
cool

Thank you Google, Thank you you are the coolest site...:-)