Merge styles and hybridize your designs (Illustrator CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

Styles are terrific timesavers and help keep your designs consistent. However, most Illustrator users set up styles that are very specific for the task at hand, such as a pink drop shadow or a marble fill. But what if you want to create a pink drop shadow with a marble fill on the fly? It's easy when you merge styles together. To do so, select the two styles you want to merge from the Graphic Styles pane (hold down [command] on the Mac or [Ctrl] in Windows to select more than one style). Then, select Merge Graphic Styles from the Graphic Styles palette's pop-up menu, give your new style a name in the Graphic Style Options dialog box, and click OK. Your new merged style appears in the Graphic Styles panel, ready for your next great design.