What do you have to do first before modifying individual components of a symbol?

To effectively modify individual components of a symbol in Adobe Illustrator, the initial step is to ungroup the symbol. Symbols in Illustrator are essentially templates or reusable objects that can consist of multiple elements grouped together. By ungrouping a symbol, you separate those individual components, allowing you to select and alter them independently.

When you ungroup a symbol, each part of the symbol can be edited without affecting the original symbol instance or other instances of that symbol. This action grants you the flexibility to adjust colors, sizes, shapes, or any other attributes of the separate elements.

While options such as locking the symbol or editing it in place might seem viable, they do not facilitate the direct modification of individual components. Locking a symbol would prevent any changes from being made, while editing in place allows for adjustments to the symbol as a whole rather than its parts. Creating a new document is also unrelated to accessing and modifying parts of a symbol. Therefore, ungrouping is essential for this level of detailed editing.