Move the pattern - but not the shape (Illustrator CS)

When you apply patterns from the Swatches palette, you'll notice they always apply to graphics in the same way, which can occasionally be problematic. However, you don't have to accept it. You can manipulate the pattern without affecting the shape it's in by pressing the tilde key (~) as you use the Rotate tool, Reflect tool, Scale tool, or Shear tool. Distorting the pattern can make quite a difference in appearance. This trick is especially useful when you're working on a group of objects that all have the same pattern fill. In this case, you can tweak the pattern in each shape just a little bit to keep the patterns from lining up perfectly and inadvertently flattening out the form.