bending straight segment paths

[Toby_Miller@adobeforums.com]

Hi out there--I am new to Illustrator. Please can someone tell me how to bend a straight segment of a path if there are no bezier handles associated with the segment? I have been tracing around a curved shape, but the last part of the curve I don't know how to make curved, because of no bezier handles. Thanks a lot for your insight. PS I am using Illustrator 10 on a Mac running 10.3.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Get the Convert Anchor Point tool (behind the Pen) or with the Pen tool active, hold down the Option key, and drag on a selected anchor point. If the anchor is an endpoint, I generally draw another short segment from that endpoint, and then use the Convert tool to drag out handles - then delete the added endpoint.

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

The other way you can do this (which may be faster) is to make the Reshape tool
active (behind the Scale tool). Then just click somewhere on the straight segment
and drag to "shape" the curve you need. The only disadvantage of this approach
is that you add a "technically unnecessary" point to your object. It's unnecessary
because, as Gary points out, the curve can be produced with control handles.