Text Effects in Illustrator CS - Multiple Strokes on Type

Step 2. Open the Character palette ( Window > Type > Character). You need to enter a positive value for tracking to spread the letters out, since they will be considerably thicker once they're outlined. For now, use a guesstimate. You won't know at this point how far apart you will need them when finished, because it depends on the thickness of the last stroke you use, and you can always come back later and adjust it. The text needs to be selected with either the selection tool or the text tool for this to work. I set mine at 50 for now.