Select objects
To organize and lay out your artwork, you use tools for selecting, positioning, and stacking objects precisely. You can measure and align objects; group objects so that they are treated as a single unit; and selectively isolate, lock, or hide objects.
Selection options and preferences
Options for selecting objects
Before you can modify an object, you must distinguish it from the objects around it. You do that by selecting the object. Once you’ve selected an object, or a part of an object, you can edit it.
Illustrator provides the following selection methods and tools:
Lets you quickly and precisely select individual or multiple objects. You can select a single object (even if it’s in a group), all objects within a layer, and entire groups.
Lets you select objects and groups by clicking or dragging over them. You can also select groups within groups and objects within groups.
Group Selection tool
Lets you select an object within a group, a single group within multiple groups, or a set of groups within the artwork. Each additional click adds all objects from the next group in the hierarchy.
Perspective Selection tool
Lets you bring objects and text in perspective, switch active planes, move objects in perspective, and move objects in perpendicular direction.
Lets you select objects, anchor points, or path segments by dragging around all or part of the object.
Magic Wand tool
Lets you select objects of the same color, stroke weight, stroke color, opacity, or blending mode by clicking the object.
Live Paint Selection tool
Lets you select faces (areas enclosed by paths) and edges (portions of paths between intersections) of Live Paint groups.
(located in the Select menu) Let you quickly select or deselect all objects, and select objects based on their position relative to other objects. You can select all objects of a specific type or that share specific attributes, and save or load selections. You can also select all objects in the active artboard.
Specify selection preferences
Selecting paths and points in complex images can be challenging. Using the Selection and Anchor Display preferences, you can specify the tolerance for pixel selection and choose other options that can make selection easier for a particular document.
Choose Edit > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display (macOS).
Specify any of the following Selection options:
Specifies the pixel range for selecting anchor points. Higher values increase the width of the area around an anchor point that you can click to select it.
Object Selection By Path Only
Specifies whether you can select a filled object by clicking anywhere in the object or whether you have to click a path.
Snap To Point
Snaps objects to anchor points and guides. Specify the distance between the object and anchor point or guide when the snap occurs.
Isolate artwork for editing
Isolation mode isolates objects so that you can easily select and edit particular objects or parts of objects. You can isolate any of the following: layers, sublayers, groups, symbols, clipping masks, compound paths, gradient meshes, and paths.
In Isolation mode, you can delete, replace, and add new art relative to the isolated art. When you exit isolation mode, replaced or new art is added at the same location as the original isolated art. Isolation mode automatically locks all other objects so that only the objects in isolation mode are affected by the edits you make— you don’t must worry about what layer an object is on, nor do you must manually lock or hide the objects you don’t want affected by your edits.
When you edit a symbol’s definition, the symbol appears in isolation mode. (See Edit or redefine a symbol.)
When isolation mode is active, the isolated object appears in full color, while the rest of the artwork appears grayed out. The isolated object’s name and location (sometimes referred to as bread crumbs) appears in the isolation mode border, and the Layers panel displays only the artwork in the isolated sublayer or group. When you exit isolation mode, the other layers and groups reappear in the Layers panel.
You can view isolated objects in outline mode or preview mode.