illustrator cs3 help! aargh!

[furry_cup]

hey!

having a bit of trouble with illustrator.

I have a box with a clippping mask applied to it. I want this box to merge/join some more box's so they all the have the same gradient the flows right across them.

It wont let me make the other box's into a compound path because one of them has a clipping mask!

What am i doing wrong, thanks.

 

[Longy]

Can you not create a box on top/behind the clipping mask box and make that a compound path? I'm sure you can't add a gradient to a box that has a clipping mask anyway? I could be wrong.