I have wanted to learn to use Illustrator for many years, so when I got the opportunity to write a book review on the new Adobe Illustrator CS3 WOW! Book, I believed I was embarking on my Illustrator training at last. I read through chapter one,  "Illustrator Basics", thinking I was getting the information I would need to be able to try out the exercises in the following chapter, "The Zen of Illustrator". I must admit I was quite giddy by the time I was ready to insert the companion CD into my computer and launch Illustrator to follow along. As I went through Exercise #1 everything was fine, until I got to step 3. I was not able to replicate what the book displayed. I tried again, with no luck. Then I tried some modifications on the steps the book had spelled out and was finally able to finish the exercise successfully. I grumbled and went on. Sadly, exercise after exercise proved to be extremely frustrating. The problem, as I saw it, was that the tutorials were incomplete at best and just incorrect at worst.

I took a break and gave it some thought. Perhaps this book is not for a beginner like me. In that case, I could be more generous about the missing information. However, I could swear that I had read that this book was for beginners. I searched through the opening pages to find what had given me this idea. I found it in the second sentence of chapter one. "Whether you're a veteran user of Illustrator or a relative new comer, you'll find…" There it was.

I decided to take the high road and learn some more of the basics and then come back to the book so I could finish my review. I watched a few video tutorials from UACBT, these are the on-line tutorials that are free to University of Arizona students, faculty and staff. The website for these tutorials is http://uacbt.arizona.edu.  With a few quick tutorials under my belt, I was ready to take on another exercise from the WOW book. I tried Exercise #5, "Make a star". I didn't get past step #1 before I started mumbling. I did not know how to "reset the ruler origin on a vertical guide.” Am I supposed to know how to do this? Wow, this is so not meant for beginners. Mumbling is not as serious as cussing. I usually don't start cussing until many hours have passed, unless of course if I'm on a deadline, as I am with this review.

I was ready to toss the book in the trash and tell our readers not to bother, but that didn't seem very productive. I was determined to find something useful. So I went to look at other reviews of the book. This author is no stranger to the scene. The WOW series has been around for a long time. People loved it, and everyone agreed that it was not for beginners.

Aha!

  After a bit more research and re-reading, I found this in the "Important: Read me first!" section, "I've also assumed that you understand the basic functionality of most of the tools".  All right then, I guess I can't cry foul, but I might as well hang up my fantasies about using this book to learn Illustrator. And since I can't go through the exercises, I can't tell you if the book is any good. All I can tell you is there are 458 pages. The first few chapters cover the user interface and basic tools such as the pen tool and Bezier curves. It has pretty pictures and what look like very cool exercises.  Good luck!