Really Basic Question I'm embarrased to ask

[propage@adobeforums.com]

Folks

why is it that when I use the direct selection tool on an object sometimes the bezier curve points show and the handles for distorting the curve etc. but so many other times the outline of the object just shows and then if I try and move a point then the whole object moves.

[Cathie_Howell@adobeforums.com]

If you hold "shift" when clicking on the anchor point (with the white arrow) you can move the anchor points around.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

I suspect the reason that sometimes the whole object is selected (when you just wanted a segment or point) is that you inadvertantly clicked on the FILL of the object. If Object Selection by Path Only is turned off in General Preferences (as it usually is), clicking on the fill of an object selects the entire object. The solution: simply deslect by clicking somewhere else, and select again, trying to click directly on a segment or a point.

[hitpawz@adobeforums.com]

I try to avoid clicking directly on line segments or points. I usually marquee drag across a section because it's much faster and doesn't have the strict requirement of being directly on the elements. Of course, you have to start the drag from an empty section of the artboard or you'll end up dragging another element. Smart guides (CMND U) will also give you visual feedback with a lable over what you're about to click.

But the direct select tool is exactly that. What you click is what you're affecting so if you grab the inside fill, it moves the entire fill, which must move the entire object.

CMND - SHIFT - A (deselect all) is one of my best friends and I pretty much use that combo as my home keys.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

Holding down the shift key allows you to add to your selection. or de-select something alredy selected.

I think all you really need to know is that if you select the object by clicking on the fill area, the whole object and all its points are selected, so you can't move individual points. If you select the line, or better yet, click directly onto the point you want to move, it becomes editable.

[EDIT: 3 other responses were posted in the time it took me to post this between job tasks. Sorry for the redundancy]

[propage@adobeforums.com]

Thanks so much. I will practice this and get it down to a fine art!

[hitpawz@adobeforums.com]

Might as well throw this in because it's still sort of new to me.

Holding ALT/OPTION with the direct select tool will select the entire object regardless of where you click on it.

It will also grab entire groups if you repeatedly click on the object.

This eliminates a LOT of tool switching but doesn't completely rule out the need for the select tool, which is useful for adjusting bounding boxes and resizing text boxes without resizing the text (which will reformat). To resize the text inside the box along with the text box, use free transform (E)

[John_Slate@adobeforums.com]

While we're on the subject of basics:

Sometimes I want to do a marquee selection of a bunch of objects that are on top of a larger background object, that I do not want to select.

The problem being when you enter the first point for the marquee, it is on the background object, so it becomes selected, and the drag for the marquee moves the background, instead of making a group selection.

So you have to start your marquee on top of nothing.

Sometimes it is easy enough to start off the artboard and swoop in to get your group, then shift click to deselect the stuff you don't want.

Or you can always hide the background temporarily.

Are there any tricks to doing this that I am not in on?

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

I'm in the habit of moving large background images into their own layer(s) and keeping it locked unless I want to edit that background image. Another trick is to temporarily toggle into outline mode (command-y in AI10, but I heard that changed in CS??) then toggle back when you've got your selection.

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

Well I often like to use the Layers palette to select various objects that overlap or are overlapped by other objects that get in the way of selecting them. And of course if they are on the same layer just selecting the layer is as simple as you can get or just lock the large object that you don't want selected.

Actually a great feature request would be to have customizable contextual menus so that you can place things like lock object and things like that.

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

John Slate, if you use the lasso tool (Q), you can marquees objects "on top of but within the bounds of" a larger object without selecting the larger background object. The lasso tool doesn't detect the fill of the larger object.

This, of course, is if you don't want to: 1) place your background object on another, locked layer, or 2) Temporarily change to outline mode, or 3) select the objects in the layers palette instead of on the artboard, or 4) temporarily hide or lock the background object... themselves all good alternatives.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Sometimes it's easiest to just hit Command - Y to turn off the preview. Then you can drag select anything you like. Command - Y turns the preview back on.

[hitpawz@adobeforums.com]

Habits dating back to version 7 have me always locking the larger objects. I usually click, lock, click, lock, click, lock in rapid fire succession until everything in the way is locked. Most of the time I do utilize layer locking, but sometimes I forget and I can do it so fast that it's not usually a biggy.

I'll mention this to keep the basics theme going. Selecting an object and hitting CMND-OPT-SHIFT 2 will lock everything but what is selected and CMND-OPT-SHIFT 3 will do the same thing with hide. Extremely useful.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Gotta be careful with this, though. When you use Command - Option - 2 to unlock the stuff you just locked, you also unlock anything you've locked on any sublayers.