How do you make a gradient effect with text in Adobe Illustrator?

From my experience, you're still going to have to convert the type to outlines...the gradient mesh tool doesn't work on much except for "path" objects. When you do the convert, it will have all the new objects selected...at this point, you can apply your gradient mesh to the entire group, rather than letter by letter. Bear in mind, however, that the centerpoint of the mesh will be the center of the group, not the center of each letter. In order to achieve that, you'll have to do it letter by letter.

Thanks rcastagna, you're right. I just needed to convert to outlines and then click the gradient in the swatch. I used the gradient tool to change the direction of the gradient and then can use the gradient tool pallet box (not sure what that is called) to switch the colors. Huge.