Grouping ALL w/out having to select beforehand

[samueI]

Hello!

I'd like to explore whether there is a way to group all objects without having to "Select All" or CMD + A beforehand.

The reason being I'm working with large formats (floorplans) and often need to resize the whole thing. The extra step of selecting all can take several minutes to process and the grouping, again, several minutes. Only after selecting and grouping I change the dimensions of the whole floorplan, which again, as you may have guessed, takes a couple minutes.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @samueI,

Thanks for reaching out and for explaining your workflow so clearly. Currently, Illustrator doesn't offer a built-in way to group all objects without selecting them first, which is why that extra step takes time. I completely understand how useful this functionality would be for large and detailed files like yours.

I'd recommend creating a feature request on our UserVoice page (Illustrator – Adobe Product Community) and sharing your feedback there. This helps our product team prioritize the request, and you'll also get notified if it's added in a future update.

Please feel free to reach out anytime if you have more questions or need assistance.

Abhishek

[CarlosCanto · Accepted solution]

If you switch to Outline View (Ctrl/Cmd + Y) does it help?

On top of that, 

1. press Shift + O to get the Artboard Tool

2. press the Scale Artwork with Artboard button in the Control Bar

3. drag Artboard handles to scale, or change it's width/height values in the Control Bar

that would resize the artboard and the art, if you need to keep its original artboard size, scale the artboard without scaling the art

[Kurt Gold]

Carlos' advice is very good.

Nonetheless, you are saying that it may take some minutes to select all objects, some more minutes to group them and then again even some minutes to scale the selection.

That's suspicious and indicates that your entire document may contain overly complicated constructions.

"Floor plans". --- I may be wrong, but this often means that this file may have been created in some of the ominous specialised applications for architects. That's a dangerous area that can cause a lot of trouble.

In case your file is not confidential, you may share it for inspection.