On Number 3, If you change your gradient to shades of gray you could then add a new Live Fill over the Gradient and set the Blending Mode to Color.

I cant see where the edit option is to change the gradient to shades of grey. Can you point me in the right direction?

I just want the segment to change colour but keep its gradient - I though I would just be able to drop another color on it!

Not sure if this is the best way to do it but, select your objects and from the EDIT MENU choose EDIT COLORS/CONVERT TO GRAYSCALE.

This way you keep just the luminance from your gradients.

Then one at a time, select an object and give it a new Live Fill. Use the Appearance Panel for this. There's a Add Fill button at the bottom.

Illustrator will add a new fill ontop of the gradient fill so that you will only be able to see the new fill.

Choose a color for the fill, then, in the Appearance Panel again click on the down arrow on the new Fill layer and then click on Opacity to reveal a drop down menu for blending modes. Choose COLOR.

Your new fill color will now colorize the grayscale gradient below it. (The gradient needs to be black and white because using the Color Blend Mode would produce new colors if you blend a color over a color.

You can now change just the Fills to different colors and your gradients will stay put.

Scott's way would work great too but the Edit Colors dialogue can be pretty confusing. I've been using AI for 4 years now and even I avoid it. It would be good to learn it though.

If you use my suggestion I already explained that.

Sound like you're using Scott's suggestion.

If you are:

• Select an object with a gradient fill.

• goto Edit/Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork.

• click on the EDIT tab. It looks like a button to the left of the ASSIGN tab/button.

• Look for the ChainLink icon at the lower right of the color wheel. Make sure it's selected so that it's locked.

• Now play with the Hue slider.

Okay, there are a couple ways to tweak the look of the gradient without having to actually touch the stops in it.

Most important would be for you to learn the ways of the Appearance Panel, and of blending modes, but for now:

Right now I'm assuming you have a rectangle with a Gradient Fill applied, and a Color Fill over it with a Color Blend Mode.

Approach 1: Duplicate the Gradient Fill and set the blend mode of the top Gradient to Multiply, or Overlay.

1. Select the rectangle.

2. Select the Gradient Fill in the Appearance Panel.

3. Drag that layer to the New Fill Icon at the bottom of the Panel.

4. You should now have 2 Gradient Fills. One right over the other. And above both of them, the Color Fill with a Color Blend Mode.

5. Take the topmost Gradient Fill, twirl it down to see Opacity, and from there choose Multiply. This will take one gradient and make it blend with the one below to make it appear darker. The color fill is still over both of them and is still doing its coloring job.

    You can also try Overlay, this will darken the dark parts of the gradient, and lighten the light parts.

7. Keep in mind, all the while, you can lower the Opacity of the higher gradient to soften the effect.

Approach 2: Move the single Gradient Fill ABOVE the Color Fill

1. Select the rectangle.

2. In the Appearance Panel, select the Gradient Fill and drag it ABOVE the Color Fill.

    You should now see only your b/w gradient on the rectangle. The Gradient Fill is now 'covering' the Color Fill.

3. Fix your Color Fill. Set its blend mode to Normal.

4. Back to the Gradient. Now set the Gradient Fill to Muliply or Overlay or whatever. This will now blend the gradient over the Color Fill. (This is probably the best way to do it. It adds luminance values to color, rather than having the color had hue values to luminance. This way makes more sense.)

5. For extra pop, you can duplicate your Gradient Fill again as described in the first approach.

You should def. look into how Live Fills, Live Strokes, the Appearance Panel and Blending modes work out and all this will just come to you naturally.