how can I separate the hat from the W?

Jenny,

A completely different approach, if you wish:

1) Direct Select the hat, as you seemed to do in very the first screenshot, or switch to the Direct Selection Tool, click an empty spot to deselect, then hold down Alt/Option (Win/Mac) and ClickDrag upwards to the right from the leftmost part of the brim to select the hat, avoiding the W;

2) Ctrl/Cmd+C+F+X+F to make an independent copy of the hat on top;

3) Switch to the Selection Tool and in the Toolbox set the fill colour as desired (and the stroke if also desired);

4) ClickDrag across the hat and part of the W, avoiding the o, and Ctrl/Cmd+G to Group.

This should give you a Group you can move about as a whole, with the desired appearance.

No need to be sorry about the current level of knowing the new ways, Jenny.

Starting with your screenshot (on page 1), the cyan square shows that the W+hat is selected, and the <Comp... shows that it is a Compound Path; it is called Path (singular) because it acts as one single path even though it consists of multiple parts (my guess is that the hat itself consists of two paths), and because of that it can only have one fill colour (with a different shaping it would have been simple to use a gradient to have it appear as having two colours).

That is why the first step is to split it into separate paths, one for the W, and one or more for the hat.

The way to do it is to have the Compound Path selected (as in the screenshot and then Shift+Alt/Option+Ctrl/Cmd+8, or Object>Compound Path>Release (as suggested); this ought to change what you see in the Layers palette so that the W becomes its own object and the hat becomes another object; you may see a Group at first, in which case it ought to say Group, and you can expand the Group by ticking the arrow that points right so it points down and the parts in the Group are shown (just like the parts of Wonda text with the arrow pointing down).

At this stage you should be able to select only the hat in the Layers palette, simply by ticking the square to the right (which ought to deselect the W), and change its fill colour.

If things are different, please show screenshots with the hat and the expanded Layers palette of what appears as you follow the steps above.

Jenny,

Releasing the Compound Path should give you the separation from the W, without their forming a Group (the hat part(s) may be a Group or something), but if they do, you can expand the Group and select the hat part in the Layers palette, or Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+G to Ungroup and work with the hat part(s) freely..

When it is solved, you should make sure to have the hat and the W as a Group again so you are sure they move together.

After releasing the Compound Path, can you select the hat part(s) and show what has happened/changed in the Layers palette, where it said <Comp... before you tried to release it?

I wonder whether the W is locked, by the way.

You are welcome, Jenny.

I hope you will share your findings.

Jenny,

Shift+Alt/Option+Ctrl/Cmd+8, or Object>Compound Path>Release, will separate the hat from the W so you can recolour it.

Remember to deselect, then select (only) the hat so you only recolour that.

As a Compound Path they are (treated as) one path and can only be coloured as one path.

Jenny,

If you Click the Layer in the Layers palette and look at the Appearance palette, is there an added white fill?

In that case that added fill will overrule any changes you try to make to the objects, but you can delete that fill and give different fills freely to the objects; you can just select everything and give it a white fill, then change the hat fill.

Failing that, can you show what is in (the hat part of) the expanded Layer in the Layers palette with the hat selected as in the screenshot?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. I'd recommend checking out the help article https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/cutting-dividing-objects.html to know about cutting, dividing and trimming objects.

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Ashutosh

Jenny,

What happens if you deselect and then ClickDrag over the entire hat with the Direct Selection Tool, then try to change the colour?