[Mike Gondek]

Never got to use Zaxwerks, btu you can try to copy a ptath to the clipbaord and paste (works in After Effects if you have your illustrator preferences set to aicb)

Otherwise you may want to reference what file format s zaxwerks accepts (pdf, eps or .ai) If you use .ai you may wnat to try turning off or on PDF comaptibel when saving.

Sorry I don’t haev Zaxwerks expereince, but noone answered your post so hope this helps.

[Mike Gondek]

Yeah I had this happen years ago on a couple of macs in OS 9, but not recentnly. Reset your Illustrator preferences.

Boot Illustrator and immediately afterwrds hold down Command Option Shift. Sya yes to resetting the prefs.

[Mike Gondek]

Unfortunatley you cannto copy paths form one docuemtn to antoher form the paths palette.

Transferring your paths to Vector based layer masks should help:

Highlight a path in your paths palette
Go to you layers palette
Choose Layer >> add vector mask >> current path

Remember to hold down shift when dragging layers between documents to center them. The trick is to start dragging the layer first, then adding the shift key before you drop. Though the purpose is to center pixels, most people use this simlar to to register layers between 2 docuemtns of the same pixel size.

[Mike Gondek]

Use object >> rasterize to res down your embedded images in illustrator.

I personally prefer to link to placed images(that taht keeps your .ai’s small & fast), and in that case you can res the image down in Photoshop using imaeg size as you menionted.

You can also when saving as a .ai turn off PDF compatibility. That checkbox comes up after clicking save on a new file, or use save as to get to the menu on an old file. I know you need that for placing .ai files in InDesign, btu a very very very very wasteful setting that Adobe keeps on by default. I do not rememebr After Effects needing that on, but I could be wrong.

[Mike Gondek]

That is the pdf format chopping up the transparency of the file. Usually still prints good, just llook sbad at various zoom levels. Usually viewing at 100%

Do you need to save as .pdf, or can you try another format such as .eps?

[Mike Gondek]

From word export as .pdf, and open this in Illustrator. YOu will get postscritp quality, and positioning shoudl not shift. You can also open the .pdf in phothsop if you would liek a bitmap file for your credits.

If you have a new enough version of softwares, try copying the word document to the clipboard and pasting into Illustrator (works great on graphs thansk to the pdf clipboard option).

[Mike Gondek]

You want ot open the .cdr file in corel and export this to either .pdf, .ai or .eps adn open this in illustrator.

On troublesome files you may have to try all 3 and piece this back together if you get dropped elelments. Gradients are the worst, and I sometimes fill a gradient with a solid color in corel, and reapply my gradient values in illustrator. USually PDF is the best format for converting the gradients, btuj they get bitmapped so future editing can be difficult.

[Mike Gondek]

Sure you only need to knwo the corect file format to save as.

Try PDF or .psd which both have the ability to save transparency.

PDF will hold vector quality so would make that your first choice. I only mentioned exporting to a .psd, because this can be good for future editing needed, especially if you image is bitmapped only, this way you could open this in photoshop if needing some of the editing tools with photoshop.

[Mike Gondek]

The technique you will use all dpends on the logo, whether it has many differetn tones or solid shapes.

YOu will proabbly want to place your jpeg on a layer and lock this, and then redraw the artowrk on a new layer on top. This way you can hide the template layer and nto worry abut accidentally selecting this. I sometimes do my bezier tracing in phothsop, since the preview is better, and copy/paste the bezier shapes into illustrator.

[Mike Gondek]

No there is no trick to fix this, except to design everything at 1/4 or 1/10th scale. This is why so many people still use Corel for large scale graphics (Airplanes, trade shows, fleet graphics).