Rectangle Tool. Hold down the Shift key to draw squares. Hold down the Option/Alt key to draw from the center of the rectangle – that’ll be where you clicked the mouse. Shift+Option/Alt gives you a square drawn from the center. Double-click the tool’s icon in the toolbar and nothing happens other than selecting the tool. Click the tool on the desktop and the Rectangle dialog box opens as seen here. It usually has some information in the fields, and that’s usually what you drew last with the tool. If you drag the mouse a bit as you clicked the desktop, you’ll get a tiny rectangle and tiny numbers in these fields. Enter something appropriate for what you’re doing, and when you click OK, the dialog goes away and you have a rectangle at the size you entered. Stroke and fill it at your pleasure. If, as shown here, the numbers are in pixels and you want to work in inches, then select the entire field by double-clicking and type the numbers followed by the abbreviation for the units – inches (in), centimeters (cm), millimeters (mm) and so on. It ain’t rocket surgery, but the numbers you enter will be translated into whatever units you have set in Illustrator’s Preferences>Units & Display Performances. Don’t freak, it’ll all be fine.

Rounded Rectangle Tool. Zactly the same as the Rectangle tool, only you can change the radius of ALL FOUR corners. Double-click the tool’s icon in the toolbar and nothing happens other than selecting the tool. Click the tool on the desktop and the Rounded Rectangle dialog box opens. It looks exactly like the Rectangle’s dialog box and functions the same, with the addition of a radius field.

Ellipse Tool. Same trip with the Shift and Option/Alt keys, only you’re working with a complete circle. Click the tool on the desktop and the Ellipse dialog box opens. It looks exactly like the Rectangle’s dialog box and functions the same.

Polygon Tool. Shift key constrains the drawn shape to a horizontal baseline.Option/Alt doesn’t do squat. Double-click the tool’s icon in the toolbar and nothing happens other than selecting the tool. Click the drawing board to open the Polygon dialog box as shown here. You have a radius (the distance from the center of the object to any and all of the points), and a Sides field. Enter any number from 3 up to about 360 – after that, you’ve got a jagged-edged circle, and unless you just want a lot of points to work with, it’s kinda useless.

Star Tool. Ah, finally something a little different. Radius 1 is the inside ring of points in your star. Radius 2 is the outside. It’s trial and error at first to get the star to the right proportions you’re looking for, but you can get there finally. Try the Lasso Tool trick if you get too frustrated. The last field is for the number of points you want. The Shift key constrains the star to a horizontal orientation. The Option/Alt keys are worthless, but the Cmd/Ctrl keys are really cool! Press it down as you drag the star. The inner points (Radius 1) stays in position while the Radius 2 points move toward or away from the center of the star. Darned neat I tell ya!

Now, with the Star and Polygon tools – especially the Star tool, though, don’t be held to the regularity of the shapes. They’re usually static and boring. Instead, after you’ve drawn the basic shape, select it and squeeze it flat or skinny to give it a little life. Just a thought…

At last, the Flare Tool. It’s just my opinion, but this tool really belongs in Photoshop, although I’ve used it at least twice. Double-click the tool in the toolbox and its dialog box opens. It’s much more involved than the other tools in this section. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on lens shades for all my cameras, and I’ve got a bunch. I use them to eliminate lens flares. I don’t want them. They screw up a good picture. That said, sometimes they’re almost the object of the photo, but that’s another discussion. The Flare Tool in Illustrator is made of vectors, and that’s pretty cool. You get all these rays, rings, halos, and transparency in one tool. I’ll let you play with the various settings because it’s all up to the user and what they want out of the flare (check the Preview box so you can see what you’re creating). I usually draw the flare and immediately start tearing out the crud I don’t want. It’s a great way to get a bajillion lines of differing lengths and points of origin emitting about a center point, though! I say, use at your own risk. Explore it, yes, but use it sparingly because it really can be garish and tacky if it’s not used right.