Selecting

You can select single or multiple objects using a variety of methods. If you already have an item selected, you can quickly select the next or previous object in the z-order (stack).

Edit All Layers and selection behaviour

The selection behaviour depends on the current Edit All Layers setting on the Layers panel's Panel Preferences menu:

When Edit All Layers is enabled (the default), the command will select objects across all layers and sub-layers.
When Edit All Layers is disabled, only objects on the current layer are selected. Objects within sub-layers are not selected.

Selection box types

For some shapes (e.g. star shapes), a Base box type will be established on shape creation to accommodate the range of different potential shape sizes when creating variants of that shape. However, you can temporarily swap to a 'tighter' bounding box called Regular bounds if needed. The latter is useful for accurately resizing a shape by its corner/edge handles to another object or page element.

Base box and regular bounds — Selection box types: Base box (A) and Regular bounds (B)

For rotated multiple selections of objects or pixel layers, you can temporarily reorient the selection's selection box to vertical using the same Regular bounds type. Otherwise, the selection box will stay transformed with the transformed items (using the Base Box type).

Rotated multiple selection with reoriented selection box — Rotated multiple selection before (A) and after (B) reorienting the selection box to Regular bounds

It's possible to permanently set the object's selection box to orient to the page's horizontal and vertical edges. The object is unaffected. When reselecting the items again, the selection box will remain unrotated.

If you're using axonometric grids, the additional selection box type Planar bounds, which matches the current grid, can also be swapped to and be made permanent if needed.

To select a layer:

Do one of the following:

With the Move Tool selected, tap layer content on the document.
On the Layers panel, tap a layer.

To select multiple layers:

Do one of the following:

With the Move Tool selected, tap a layer's contents on the document to select it. Hold a second finger elsewhere on the document view, then tap additional layer contents on the document to select them in turn.
On the Layers panel, swipe right on layers to select them.
To select a span of layers using the Layers panel (Photo Persona or Export Persona), tap an initial layer to select it, then two-finger tap another layer to select it and all layers in between as well.

To control automatic selection behaviour:

On the Move Tool's context toolbar, choose one of the following options. These let you optionally select only layers or groups on the page, or just from the Layers panel (on-page selection is prevented).
- Auto-select On (default)—objects and groups can be selected on the page or Layers panel.
- Auto-select Off—objects and groups can be selected from the Layers panel only.
- Auto-select Layers—only layers can be selected on the page, while grouped items will be selected as if ungrouped; both groups and layers can be selected from Layers panel.
- Auto-select Groups—only groups can be selected on the page; both groups and layers can be selected from Layers panel.

To select a specific child layer:

On the Layers panel, expand the parent layer or layer group to show its contents by tapping the arrow at its left side.
Tap the child layer to select it.

To deselect layers:

With the Move Tool selected, tap on any empty area of the canvas or anywhere else in the document.

To cycle between selection box types:

On the Move Options Menu, choose Cycle Selection Box.

To set the selection box permanently:

Cycle to the selection box you want using Cycle Selection Box on the Move Options Menu.
On the same menu, choose Set Selection Box.

Gestures

The following gesture(s) can be used:

On the Layers panel (in Photo Persona or Export Persona), swipe right on a layer entry to select or deselect it.
On the Layers panel (in Photo Persona or Export Persona), with a layer entry selected, two-finger tap another layer entry to select those layers and all in between them.

Modifier(s)

The following modifiers (gesture-based, Command Controller or a hardware keyboard) can be used:

With the Auto-select option disabled (on the context toolbar):
- -tap objects on the page to enable the option back on the fly.
With the Auto-select option enabled:
- On the Layers panel, holding and tapping selects multiple layers. The same is achieved by tapping layer contents on the page whilst holding the modifier.
- In the document view, hold down a finger or the modifier and tap multiple layers to select them.
- While using the above modifier for multi-selection, additionally hold the modifer and tap on a target layer to remove it from the selection.
- Pressing the modifier whilst tapping on a layer in the panel temporarily disables the whole composition preview leaving only the one (tapped on) selected—helpful in confirming selection of layers in complex compositions.
- As you drag a selection marquee, pressing the modifier selects layers which are only partially covered by the selection marquee. This behaviour can be made the default in Settings (Preferences)*.

Auto-select

Edit All Layers and selection behaviour

Selection box types

SEE ALSO: