Expert: Amy - 2/15/2004

Question
Amy, thankyou for your help so far, you have saved me many many hours.  Your a gem.

I have another question.  What is the easiest way to select out objects, say letters, that are in the middle of an object or group of objects.  For instance, I want to try and grab the letters (that have been outlined) and move them around within the  rectangle they are sitting on.  However, when I use the white selection arrow and try to grab only the letters by drawing a box around them, the arrow also selects the box.  Thus, when I try to move the letters it also moves the box.  Is there a way to select only a few things by drawing a box around a few objects using the white arrow selector.  

I hope this makes since. Thanks for your time!

Best Wishes,
Mark

Answer
You can always deselect the rectangle by holding Shift+Alt and clicking on it with your white arrow after you've selected everything.

But there are a few ways to go about more selective selecting.  

You're already using the white selection arrow, so try holding down the alt key while you click on objects with it(instead of dragging around it) and see how it chooses the entire path at once - that's nice.

Then there's the black arrow lasso tool and white arrow lasso tool, located just below the black & white arrow tools.  That's for dragging around things and selecting them.  Try that.  I think it's what you're looking for.

Instead of switching tools, I lock objects. Choose the rectangle that you don't want to select and hit Ctrl+2.  Then you can work all you want without fear of moving it. When you're done, you unlock it. Unfortunately, I sometimes forget to unlock stuff.  That can have bad results when you're sending files out to print.

Then there's a setting in Edit > Preferences > General that says "Use area select."  Turn that off; you might like how it works for you.  Basically, with that setting off, you can only select stuff by grabbing it on its path, not in its filled area.

One of these methods is going to be more comfortable than the others for you and you'll eventually get used to working that way. Like I said, I always lock stuff. When I learned Illustrator, there was only a handful of tools, so that was the only way to select objects out of complex documents....so I still do it. Some people even use layers to control this. In PhotoShop, I love layers, but I just can't get used to using them in Illustrator.

More luck,
Amy