skewing text vertically on a path

[dré_as_in_Andrea@adobeforums.com]

I'm (still) using AI 8.1 and frequently put text on a curved path. This is no problem, but occasionally I want to skew the text vertically along the path so that the first and last letters in the line of text are more or less straight up and down, not on an angle (continuing along the arc shape). I have an old version of Freehand that contains this specific function, so I usually use that to perform this task.

Is there an equivalent function in Illustrator? It's rather inconvenient to do this seemingly simple thing in a different program.

EDIT: I just took another look at a sample done in Freehand, and it's all the letters on the path, not just the first and last, that are straight and vertical. An example would be an award certificate on which it says Certificate of Achievement in this manner.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Illustrator CS.

[dré_as_in_Andrea@adobeforums.com]

Gary,

Thanks, but I was hoping for something other than a whole upgrade to accomplish this minor, seldom-needed-except-for-now task. I'm certainly not going to upgrade for this.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Well, there are a lot of reasons to upgrade - a whole lot. And for you, it would be more than a whole upgrade - more like three upgrades for the price of one. But neither Illustrator 8, 9 or 10 have the feature you're looking for. It was added, along with a boatload of other enhanced text features, in CS. Unless there's a third-party plug-in out there that I don't know about, I'm afraid you're stuck with Freehand.

[dré_as_in_Andrea@adobeforums.com]

"Stuck" is the right word! Thanks for the info.

[Douglas_Habben@adobeforums.com]

I have a plug-in for that. Ask and ye shall receive.