Illustrator CS4 Selection Tools

Illustrator C3CS4DPD Blitz Reference

Anchor points

Bounding boxes

• Turn off the feature by choosing View->Hide Bounding Box
• To reset the bounding box so that it’s straight at the new orientation, choose Object->Transform->Reset Bounding Box

Selection tools
Selects entire objects or groups
Selects individual points
Group Selection
Magic Wand
Lasso

Selection tool using one of three main methods:

• Click the object’s path
• Click an anchor point of the object
• Drag a marquee around part or all the object’s path

(Ctrl+U) Smart guides
Edit->Preferences->Smart Guides

Selecting multiple objects

• Select->All or press Ctrl+A
• Hold down the Shift key
• Drag a marquee over >two points for multiple selection

Saving a selection

Grouping and Ungrouping

• Object->Group or press Ctrl+G
• Illustrator remembers the grouping order
• Object->Ungroup or use Ctrl+Shift+G

Using the Isolation mode
Manipulating Selected Objects
Nudging selected objects
Constraining movement
Cloning selected objects
Constraining the clone

Multiple cloning exact distance

• Object->Transform->Transform Again, or press Ctrl+D as desired
• Select->Inverse
• Select->Select Same option
• Double-click the Scale tool and enter 75% in the Uniform Scale text box
• Press the Copy button and then click OK
• See a smaller same shape inside the original
• Press Ctrl+D (Transform Again) to duplicate the transformation and create another same shape inside the last one