Adobe Illustrator CS4 Tip - Taking the Hard Work Out of Coloring Live Trace Objects

Layers Tip of the Day reader, Mario Ramirez, emailed the following question about Live Trace objects.  Mario wrote, "After I trace something, it seems to me that the only way to add color is to use the Live Paint Bucket tool (K), but it takes a long time to go over each uncolored shape and click color into it, especially if the tracing is complicated. Is there a better way?"
 
I answered, "If I'm working with a Live Trace object and know that I will need to add color to its various shapes, I select the object, and start by pressing the Live Paint button in the Control panel. The only reason I first convert to Live Paint is to make sure that there are no Gaps between shapes. After fixing any Gap problems (Object>Live Paint>Gap Options), I press the Expand button in the Control panel. Once expanded, you won't have to click on each shape with the Bucket tool to apply color. Just make sure the Fill icon in the Tools panel is in front (active) by clicking on it, then simply click and drag Swatches to each shape without selecting anything. Because there's no selecting involved, drag and drop is the most efficient way to add Swatch colors."