Separating letters from a word?

[dmont76]

How do I separate a word so I can just work with one letter at a time? 

[v_kyr]

In an still as text editable manner you would have to type words as single seperate letters in (graphics text). For graphics manipulation convert a word into curves and manipulate the single letter layer curves then.

[CPC]

dmont76,

It depends on what you want to do to your single letter but if you convert to curves (to change the shape say) your text will no longer be editable.

My suggestion is:

1. Using one of the text tools (Frame or Artistic) do a click + drag to select the single letter.

2. Go the the Character Studio.

3. Do what you want! I've changed the font size of the 't' from 30 pt to 60 pt as a simple example.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

CPC

[dmont76]

So I can't type the word, then "create outlines/ungroup" like in Adobe Illustrator? 

[Seneca]

23 minutes ago, dmont76 said:

So I can't type the word, then "create outlines/ungroup" like in Adobe Illustrator? 

Yes you can.

@CPC simply warned you that if you do that your text won't be editable, but you can manipulate each letter to your heart's content.

[dmont76]

Unfortunately, it won't let me rotate that single letter. Or is there something I'm not seeing in character panel?

[walt.farrell]

48 minutes ago, dmont76 said:

Unfortunately, it won't let me rotate that single letter. Or is there something I'm not seeing in character panel?

Once you've converted your word to curves, just select the letter you want to rotate and use the rotation handle on the bounding box to rotate it as you'd like. Or select the letter with the Move Tool and use the Transform studio panel to rotate it.

[R C-R]

20 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Once you've converted your word to curves, just select the letter you want to rotate and use the rotation handle on the bounding box to rotate it as you'd like. Or select the letter with the Move Tool and use the Transform studio panel to rotate it.

A third way is to hover the mouse pointer near any of the 4 corner handles & move it slightly until the pointer changes to a curved, double-headed arrow shape, then click & drag to rotate. It can be a little tricky to find the spot where the pointer changes, so some users don't use this method very often but it is worth mentioning, in part because if you see the double-headed arrow you might wonder why. 

Also, shear (skew) works the same way except that you hover the pointer near any of the 4 handles centered on the edges & the pointer changes to two arrows pointing in opposite directions.

All these things work for any object, not just text converted to individual curve objects.

[GarryP]

dmont76, once you have converted text to curves the Character Panel has no further use as the text is now just a set of curves like any other shape.
Also, to be able to rotate one letter shape you need to either (a) select the letter shape by selecting the group of letter shapes and then double-clicking the letter shape within the group or (b) ungroup the letter shapes and then select the letter shape you want.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

(a) select the letter shape by selecting the group of letter shapes and then double-clicking the letter shape within the group or (b) ungroup the letter shapes and then select the letter shape you want.

Or (c) expand the group in the Layers panel and select the letter you want there.

[GarryP]

Yup. Don’t know why I didn’t add that one as it’s the technique I use most often for this kind of thing.

[dmont76]

Thanks all.