Yes, of course. I'd just like to avoid the 5 or more steps afterwards that it takes to get where I need to go. ... View more

I use all of the pathfinder functions pretty regularly. Just this morning in fact on another project. I'm really only being first-world spoiled in looking for this solution in the appearance panel so that I can maintain live type. Often I just need to adjust a word or even just a letter then reprint long after the original job was delivered and installed for a derivative project of the customer. Cut lines aren't the only application either  – sometimes it's just a matter of either blending the text or differentiating the text from its background. I won't save a ton of time over a year, but some. The copy, paste in front, expand, outline strokes, unite, stroke with magenta routine can get tricky if there are gradient or textured fills in any of the layers because then another mask often needs to be applied. Another thing that happens is that I lock or hide the magenta stroke (usually in its own layer) to continue creating the whole scene. Then of course I forget to unlock or unhide it and later discover I've moved its target when I unlock. 8^P. So....Adobe.....maybe...please...could make that work? 8^) ... View more

This morning I did the experiment. Nothing's changed software update-wise. The plotter sees all of the magenta strokes regardless of the level of stacking whether they have been expanded or not. Expanding the appearance by itself doesn't get me where i want to go. I still need to grab all of the magenta strokes and unite them. That's why I wish as an appearance I could unite the strokes and still have live type. So if no one knows how to do that or whether it's even possible I'll continue with my routine. Thank you Michael and Monika for your inputs. ... View more

Yes you have the look I need. In the past I tried that but ... some background is in order. The stroke in this case is a spot color my vinyl cutter understands as a path to follow. Previously, when I dragged the top stroke to the bottom, like you have, the cutter still “saw” the stroke and cut through it. So I’ve had to copy  the text, paste it in front, turn it to outlines, and unite it. Then I no longer have completely live text. Perhaps it has changed after a few software updates. I will have investigate that tomorrow. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll let you know. ... View more

Yes, thanks. I already re-ordered the strokes in my example so that the two magenta strokes could be seen together on top of the other elements. What I would like to achieve is to select the two magenta strokes and add them together like a pathfinder action so that I get an outline of the whole character and its shadow as in the lower “A” of the example. It seems like illustrator should allow me to select both elements in the appearance panel and perform some action. But I haven’t been able so far to do that. The difference in in your example is that the stroke on the yellow A is simply hiding behind the black A and that A’s stroke is fully in tact. I need for part of that one to disappear when it (think: pathfinder) adds to the stroke of the yellow A. ... View more