Zebra print - clipping mask help

I'm new to Illustrator and am having trouble getting a clipping mask to work the way I want it to. I have a zebra print pattern over the top of some lettering and I want to keep the shape of the lettering while incorporating the zebra print. See my screen shot. What steps do I need to take? I tried Pathfinder and Shape Modes, but they don't come out right.
All I want is to have the lettering incorporate the zebra print without having points outside the letter shape.
Adrian

There are several ways to do this. Two options are: pattern fill or a clipping mask.
Pattern fill
Create a pattern from your zebra pattern by:
1. Setting the pattern artwork in front of a rectangle that has no stroke or fill.
2. Select the pattern AND the rectangle and drag them into the Swatch panel. A "pattern fill" swatch will be added to the panel.
3. Select your text and assign the pattern fill to the text.
This should ideally be a "seamless" pattern. You can read about that in the online help.
NOTE: If your pattern contains only the black portion of the fill (the white area is blank), you can add a second fill attribute to the text by using the Attributes panel:
1. Select the text.
2. Go to the fly-out menu on the Attributes panel and select "new fill".
3. Drag the new fill below the "Characters" in the Attributes panel.
4. Assign any color to it.
Clipping Mask
1. Set your text above the pattern, in the artboard (no need to convert it to outlines).
2. Select text and pattern and choose Menu item: Object/Clipping Mask/Make (or Cmd-7, mac or Ctl-7 pc)
3. Reselect the text and assign it a new color (objects lose their color when converted to a clipping mask, but it can be reassigned).
Hope this helps.

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Monika,
For your interest, it appears that my problem stemmed from changes in Illustartor.
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Hi Oompal
Simple, let´s see if I´ve understood your problem
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Am I right?
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Zebra print - clipping mask help

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