Hi,
Coming out of lurkerhood for the first time.
I think the answer in Illustrator is to save as a PDF. When you save  
as a PDF, you can embed the typefaces, etc. and depending on the  
settings you use, the PDF can still be edited in Illustrator.
On the Save As window, there is a drop-down menu with a PDF option.  
This will open the PDF settings menu. Once you've set it up how you  
want it you then save.
Adobe still tends to segregate their products (with some filter  
overlap) so Illustrator is seen as a vector image creation tool,  
Flash is an animation and interactivity developer and Photoshop is a  
bitmap image creation tool.
-david

On Apr 9, 2008, at 1:31 PM, Britt Griswold wrote:

> Marjorie Leggitt wrote:
>> Ah yes, if I had read your email more carefully I would have seen  
>> you were asking about Illustrator.
>> Yes, it is frustrating. Has CS3 made any changes to address this  
>> issue?
>
> I googled this. ART FILES - Costs $49.95;
> Art Files (a "Collection utility for Adobe Illustrator (.ai)  
> files") is available here:
> http://www.code-line.com/software/artfiles.html
>
> You can still download a free trial (good for 15 uses)
>
> Britt