A Whole Lotta Changes Goin' On - The Transform Each Command in Illustrator

Use as a pattern fill for any object or text. If the pattern is too large (or small) for the object you are filling, you can scale the pattern. Double click the scale tool in the toolbox and in the Scale dialog, check Uniform and fill in the percentage you want to scale the pattern. In the Options section, check ONLY the Patterns box and click OK.

This is the basics on the Transform Each command. To really understand it, the best thing you can do is to experiment with all the settings. Happy transforming!