The two tools that I use the most in Adobe Illustrator are the Pen tool and the Direct Selection tool.

And I have a few tips and tricks for using these tools that I will share with you in this second installment of my "Quick Tips & Shortcuts" tutorial series. The first installment, "Quick Tips & Shortcuts: Custom Keyboard Shortcuts and Workspaces," we published earlier.

One of the most important things to know about any tool is its hotkey. In this case, the hotkey for the Pen tool is “P” and the hotkey for the Direct Selection tool is “A.”

The first trick in this tutorial comes when using the Pen tool. By holding “Ctrl” with the pen tool selected, you can temporarily toggle to the Direct Selection tool for on-the-fly ancho...