In the context of the Animator, Actor Orientated Tools means that the action of the tools is dependent on the type of Actor on which they perform them.
The Vertex Selector for example, will act in the same way as the Actor Selector on Camera and Model Actors, but it will act as a move tool for individual vertices in paths, and as an pivot tool for Robots.
Again the Vertex Selector will perform differently if the Edit Spline Tweening flag is set in the Edit Menu.