Selecting or deselecting using selection commands


    Selection commands let you select objects that share the same blending mode, fill and stroke, fill color, opacity, stroke color, stroke weight, style, or symbol instance. In addition, selection commands let you select objects of the same type, including brush strokes, clipping masks, text objects, or stray points. You can also inverse a selection, select all objects on a layer, and select objects relative to their stacking order.

    You deselect objects when you no longer want to edit them. You can deselect one object, several objects, or all objects in your artwork.

To select all objects in a file:

    Choose Select > All.

To deselect all objects in a file:

    Do one of the following:

    • Choose Select > Deselect.
    • Using a selection tool, click or drag at least 2 pixels away from any object.

To repeat the last selection command used:

    Choose Select > Reselect.

To select all unselected objects, and deselect all selected objects:

    Choose Select > Inverse.

To select an object above or below a selected object in the stacking order:

    Do one of the following:

    • To select the nearest object above or below the selected object, choose Select > Next Object Above or Select > Next Object Below.
    • To select the topmost or bottommost object that overlaps the selected object's area and that is in a different layer, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) and choose First Object Above or Last Object Below from the context menu.

    (For more information on stacking orders, see Stacking objects.)

To select all objects with the same attributes:

  1. Select an object that has the attribute you want.
  2. Choose an object attribute in the Select > Same menu. (For more information on each command, look up the command in the index.)
  3. Note: You can also use the Magic Wand tool to select all objects with the same color, stroke weight, stroke color, opacity, or blending mode. (See Using the Magic Wand tool and palette.)

To select all objects of a certain type:

  1. Choose Select > Deselect to deselect all artwork.
  2. Choose Select > Object and choose an object type. (For more information on each command, look up the command in the index.)

To select the directional points and lines of an object:

  1. Select the object.
  2. Choose Select > Object > Direction Handles.

To select all the objects within a layer:

    Select any object that's in the layer, and then choose Select > Object > All On Same Layers. If the object is within a sublayer, all objects within the sublayer and the parent layers are selected.

    Tip iconYou can also click in the selection column in the Layers palette (to the right of the layer's target icon) to select all items within a layer.

To select all stray anchor points in the document window:

    Choose Select > Object > Stray Points.