Box Select (with click selecting disabled) Or modifier key for Direct Select Tool.

Forum|Forum|9 days ago
September 11, 2026
4 replies
25 views

Currently, the Direct Selection Tool cannot drag select vertices if there are other objects under the mouse without dragging those objects as well. One has to be constantly locking and unlocking the layers below. If there was a Box Select tool separate from a Click Select tool, or a modifier key for the Direct Selection Tool that would either disable click selecting or confine vertex selections to the currently selected object, it would be much faster to select vertices. Blender, as an example, has a Box Select tool and a tool for click selecting. With hot keys it’s very fast to go between the two modes. Thank you! Update- I had Illustrator selected, not Adobe Aero. Moderator please move this to Illustrator Feature Requests.

tools

jane-e

Community Expert

Hi @melbendi

We can’t delete posts, either, but I can lock it for you.

The Illustrator team does not use the Community Forums for feature requests. Instead they use a platform called User Voice. Here’s the link.

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests

I still have no idea what a “box select” would do (or even what you are referring to with the word “box”, so you might want to describe the expected behavior to the Illustrator team.

One thing I do is to set Preferences for how to view the anchor points so they enlarge when hovered over. For me, it makes it easier to see and select them. I don’t know if that will help or if you are already doing it.

Jane

melbendiAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks, Jane! The term “Box Select” is used to refer to the function of dragging a box with the cursor to select whatever is inside the box. Thank you for the tip about enlarging Anchor Points, that will be helpful for my old eyes. ;)
The Communities home page has a link at the top called “Feature Requests”, which is what I clicked, then you pick the app, and I picked Illustrator, but it still ended up in Aero. Oh well, with all your tips, I can see the feature is not so needed as I thought when I typed it up. Thanks for all your help!

jane-e

Community Expert

@melbendi

Unfortunately, moderators can’t move posts (yet), although we are told it’s being worked on.

I have no idea what you mean by Box Select tool and Click Select tool, as those are terms that Illustrator does not use. Can you clarify? I’m pretty sure “vertices” is what Illustrator calls “anchor points”.

If you are trying to reshape an object by moving anchor points with the Direct Selection tool, I do have a possible solution for you. Use Isolation mode.

When you double-click an object, Illustrator goes into Isolation mode. Everything else is temporarily locked, and the object appears in front of everything else. After you make your edits, you exit Isolation mode by pressing Escape or double-clicking away.

If you have a group or nested groups, you can drill in with repeated double clicks.

Watch the breadcrumbs in the upper left that show you where you are. If you also watch your Layers panel, you can see what you have isolated.

There are many tutorials and videos about Isolation mode, but start here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/manage-objects/select-objects/isolate-objects.html

If you still need help or if I misread your issue, here is the link for the Illustrator forum:

https://community.adobe.com/p/illustrator

Jane

melbendiAuthor

Inspiring

Yes, thank you for your reply, Jane. This post was meant as a “Feature Request” for Illustrator, which is why it isn’t making sense. There currently is no Box Select function, and Click Select was only meant descriptively. My request was to request a Box Select function. Using Isolation Mode is very helpful with this in most cases, thank you=. But when selecting interior points on a shape that has a lot of very small interior holes, it would much easier to have a “Box Select” function that doesn’t drag the shape when you click on it. But I might be the only one who misses a function like this, now that I think about it. ;-) Since the post can’t be moved, could you please delete it if you are able? Thank you!

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