With the gradient window open look at the bottom of the gradient bar and you will see a couple of circles (orange highlight, picture one). Double click one of these circles and a color menu will appear. Select a new color by selecting the swatches tab and picking your color.

Hit the ESC key the color menu will go away and the gradient window should return to full view.

In the gradient window hover your mouse around. You will see a type section at the top, which includes 3 gradient types: linear, radial and freeform. To this point we have been working with a radial gradient. Play with these, mess with the adjustment bar and familiarize yourself with the options.

At the bottom of the gradient window you will see an opacity bar, this will be covered more in the 3rd part of this guide. But it essentially makes the objects under the gradient more or less visable.