Expand Background Fill of Text Box

Question

Hey all,
I'm having some trouble expanding (converting to shape) the background fill of an area type textbox.

My text color is white within a black block. I used the direct selection tool to pick a corner of the area type. This allows you to change the background with the area to a color (black). Looks good, but I need to ouline fonts. When I expand the area type into shapes, it drops the black background color leaving me with only the white text. You'd think it's convert the black area to a black shape, and then have white type shapes on top, but it's just gone.

Any ideas how to preserve the black? I know you can have a black shape and text on separate layers, but that's more work for what I need to do. Thanks for any help!

tromboniator · Answer

The area type textbox only exists as part of a type object. As soon as the object is converted to paths it is no longer a type object, and the textbox ceases to exist. Two options that I can think of are, first, as you suggest, to draw a rectangle and set it behind the (former) type or, second, to go to the Appearance panel, add a fill to the grouped letter shapes, move the new fill behind the Contents, and apply Effect > Convert to Shape > Rectangle, and set the parameters.

Peter

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