Outlined Font and Transparent areas

[ericm10089679]

I have converted a font into outlines, I am attempting to make the inside areas of the letter B transparent (the the pink will show through. I thought I was good at using clipping and opacity masks, but this one has me stumped.
Also searched through the help and community and because I don't know exact terminology I am not getting much help.  Thanks

[Ton Frederiks]

Try using the Shape Builder tool (Shift M) with the Alt key depressed on the white areas.

[ericm10089679]

When I do that I get what appears to be a transparent grid (see gray area) however it goes away after I move the cursor away. Holding the Alt Key only gives me the Windows error sound. I've not used the Shape Builder tool before, not sure how it works.

[Ton Frederiks]

The Alt key should give you a minus pointer and clicking the gray area should delete the fill.

[ericm10089679]

Thanks. I see now how that works.  Thank you for the tip, learned something new. John's comment below worked as there was something else going on. I deleted it and started over and now it works.

[John Mensinger · Accepted solution]

I have converted a font into outlines, I am attempting to make the inside areas of the letter B transparent

Something else is in play because when you convert the B to outlines, the result is a Compound Path, and the counters of the B are holes, whereas yours are filled with white, apparently. You shouldn't need to do anything but start over with a freshly-typed B and Convert to Outlines.

[ericm10089679]

I deleted it and started over and it worked! Too much messing with it, I guess.  Thanks!