Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Acrobat Reader
One of the important benefits of Live Effects is that you can edit them at any time. Double-clicking an effect that is listed in the Appearance palette opens the dialog for that effect, where you can view the current settings and change them at will. Many people make the mistake of going to the Effect menu to edit an effect. For example, if an object has a drop shadow applied to it, some might select the object and choose Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow in order to change the settings of the effect. Doing so actually adds a second drop shadow effect to the selected object. Illustrator allows you to apply an effect to an object as many times as you’d like, and in Chapter 7 we will explore when that might be beneficial. The important thing to remember is that when you want to add a new effect to an object, you choose it from the Effect menu. To edit an effect that already exists, you double-click it in the Appearance palette.

If you try to edit an existing effect by choosing it from the Effect menu, Illustrator informs you that you must edit existing effects though the Appearance palette.

To duplicate an effect that you’ve applied, highlight it in the Appearance palette and click the Duplicate icon in the palette. You can also drag effects to the Duplicate icon. To delete an effect from an object, highlight it in the Appearance palette and click the trash icon in the palette. You can drag effects directly to the trash icon as well.