Selection Tools

Selecting objects in Illustrator is just as important as drawing objects.
Therefore I will explain you comprehensively how to do that in a proper manner.

In Illustrator we have five tools to select objects in the document.

• the “Select” (1) tool.
• the “Direct Selection” tools (2).
• the “Group Selection” tool (3).
• the “Magic Wand” tool (4).
• and the “Lasso” tool (5).

 

For those who might not have noticed, the “Group Selection” tool (3) is located under the “Direct Selection” tool (2).

 

Select – Direct Selection – Group Selection

Let us now look at how these selection tools work.
We start with the “Select”, “Direct Selection” and “Group Selection” tools.

 

What I can tell you immediately is that the “Group Selection” tool (3) is a totally unnecessary selection tool and this is for the simple reason that you can achieve the same thing with the “Direct Selection” tool, only faster.

What I want to tell you though is the keyboard shortcut for these tools.
For the “Select” tool, this is V and for the “Direct Selection” tool, this is

A.

You click the “Select” tool to select the object as a whole.
So when you click an object, that consists of several parts, with the “Select” tool and you drag it to another position, then the entire object will be moved.

The “Direct Selection” tool by contrast, only selects the part you clicked on. And when you click on something with the “Direct Selection” tool then the various anchor points of the object are visible.
But more about anchors in a later lesson.

To select multiple adjacent objects, click and drag around the objects you want to select in your document.

To select multiple non-adjacent objects, click the objects while holding the Shift key on your keyboard pressed.

 

Therefore the “Group Selection” tool is unnecessary .
I will attempt to explain what this tool does, by means of an example.

In the below drawing, I have created each line with a group of circles.
Then I also grouped these three groups. More on groups in a later lesson, but it’s just that you already know how to select something.

Now when I try to select a circle with the “Select” tool, then the whole group with all my chosen circles is selected.

For this we use the “Group Selection” tool.

For example, click once on the red circle in the top left corner, then only that object is selected (1), even though it is part of a group.
If you click again, the parent group is selected (2).
That is the entire top row of circles.
If you click again, then all circles are selected (3), that is the highest group in the hierarchy.

More about groups and their hierarchy in a later lesson, but why is this tool so unimportant now?

For the simple reason that you can achieve the same thing with the “Direct Selection” tool.

All you have to do is to press the Alt key on your keyboard when you click the “Direct Selection” tool button.

 

So what is the quickest way.
Always select the various selection tools in the tool bar, or use the shortcuts V and A and if you want to work with the “Group Selection” tool, hold the Alt key pressed.

Believe me, when you work with Illustrator, something or other needs to be selected for nearly every operation, so learn these shortcuts.

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