Selecting anchor points
All path and shape objects are built from a series of anchor points (also sometimes called "points" or
"nodes"). To change an object's shape you often need to select one or
more of these points. When you select an object with the Selection
tool or Group Select
tool, all the nodes are selected. Expression Design offers two tools
for selecting individual nodes: the Direct Selection tool 
and the Lasso Selection tool 
. The Lasso Selection tool has all the features of the
Direct Selection tool, but
offers more flexibility.
If you cannot see a node, you can click anywhere on the path with the Direct Selection or Lasso tool to highlight the path and its nodes. Then, you can select individual nodes in one of three ways.
- Clicking You can click a node with either the Direct Selection tool or the Lasso Selection tool to select it.
- Dragging a marquee If you drag the Direct Selection tool rather than click with it, you can drag out a rectangular selection marquee. Any node that falls within this selection marquee becomes selected.
- Encircling You can use the Lasso Selection tool to drag a non-rectangular selection area (like a circle or any other closed shape), and all the nodes that fall within the selection area become selected.
Dragging a selection area with the Lasso Selection tool
Note that if you drag out a rectangular or non-rectangular selection area that touches or cuts across another object, one or more nodes on that object will also be selected. If you want to select nodes on one of several overlapping objects, consider putting the other objects on a separate layer and hiding or locking it.
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If you select a path or shape and still cannot see its points, the Show Edges feature may be enabled. Try clicking on Edges from the Show submenu, under the View menu. |
Adding or removing points
After you select one or more anchor points, you can add more nodes to the selection with the SHIFT key. For example, you can press the SHIFT key and click on an unselected node to add it to the selection, or press SHIFT and then drag to add a group of nodes. To deselect one or more nodes from the selection, press the SHIFT key and click, or press the SHIFT key and drag over the selected nodes.
You can deselect all nodes by clicking anywhere on an empty part of the document, or by clicking Deselect from the Select menu, or pressing CTRL+SHIFT+A.
Quick select
Normally, you can select a node just by clicking on it — even when the object itself is not yet selected. However, if you disable the Quick (area) select option in the General page of the Options dialog box , you cannot select points on a path until you have clicked once on the object first. When the preference is enabled, you can move a node in one dragging action rather than having to select it first and then drag it.