Hiding and showing objects


    Use the Layers palette or the Hide command to make parts of your artwork invisible. The Layers palette lets you quickly hide multiple objects, groups, and sublayers by hiding their parent layer.

    While an item is hidden, it cannot be selected or modified in any way. These features are useful when you are working on objects that overlap. In addition, because hidden objects are temporarily invisible, using this feature may speed performance when you work on large or complex artwork.

    You can use the Show, Show All, and Show All Layers commands to show hidden objects.

To hide artwork:

    Choose from the following methods:

    • In the Layers palette, click the eye icon eye icon next to the item you want to hide. Click again to redisplay the item. If you hide a layer or group, all items in the layer or group are hidden.
    • Drag across multiple eye icons to hide multiple items.
    • Select an object you want to hide, and choose Object > Hide > Selection.
    • To hide all objects above an object in a layer, select the object and choose Object > Hide > All Artwork Above.
    • To hide all unselected layers, choose Hide Others from the Layers palette menu, or Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the eye icon for the layer you want to show. Alternatively, to hide all other layers other than the layer that contains the selected object or group, choose Object > Hide > Other Layers.
    • Double-click an item name in the Layers palette, or select an item and choose Options for "Layer name" from the Layers palette menu. In the Layer Options dialog box, select or deselect Show, and click OK.

    Note: You can hide entire objects only. Selecting part of an object (anchor points or segments) and hiding it affects the entire object.

To show all objects:

    Choose Object > Show All. All previously hidden objects are shown. Any previously selected objects are selected.

To show all layers and sublayers:

    Choose Show All Layers from the Layers palette menu.

    Note: Hidden objects aren't displayed by this command, only hidden layers.

To show all objects within a group:

  1. Select an unlocked and visible object in the group. (See Selecting groups or an object within a group using selection tools.)
  2. Hold down Shift+Alt (Windows) or Shift+Option (Mac OS) and choose Object > Show All.