How to skew grouped objects?

[Grey_Hodge@adobeforums.com]

Ok, here's an image of what I'm referring to in this post:
Image <http://burntelectrons.org/img/text-skew.png>

I'm new to Illustrator, trying it our instead of Photoshop for images that are better suited to be vector and scalable rather than pixel based.
I made the text, as seen, and rotated it. At this point, I needed it skewed to the left so that the characters were still vertical. Unable to find a way to skew them all at once (rather than point by point or segment by segment), I used the Distort plugin. But, now when I select the objects, the outline as shown is displayed, leading me to think the plugin is doing the work, rather than having actually skewed the outlines. How can I skew the entire group at once? I'm converting all fonts to outlines so no glyphs need to be built into the file.

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Grey,

The free transform tool should do what you want.

=-= Harron =-=

[Grey_Hodge@adobeforums.com]

I see that's letting me rotate and scale, but how would I get it to let me skew? I'll admit that the mild similarity to Photoshop's UI is probably meaking me learn slower than if it was all new. :)

[Philip_Peterson@adobeforums.com]

On the right bottom corner of the transform pallet you can enter in a number for the skew.

Or you can use the skew tool which is hidden beneath the scale tool.

[Grey_Hodge@adobeforums.com]

Aha! Perfect! Thanks!

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Grey,

Try various combinations of the ctrl, alt, and shift keys after you've grabbed a corner handle with the free transform tool.

This is all explained in the manual and in online help.

=-= Harron =-=