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Participant
April 25, 2024
Question

Shift-Select - Ctrl-Deselect

  • April 25, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 1123 views

This is the standard for so much other software, is it possible to implement in Illustrator?

 

It's extremely useful to be able to select a group of objects by dragging, and then deselect items by dragging - but in Illustrator, you will inevitably include unintended objects, and end up endlessly toggling the selection / deselection status. In CAD, it's very simple - one button to select, another to deselect; drag one way to select all objects inside, dra the other to select all objects partially inside. Even other Adobe software like photoshop has the shift-ctrl difference. I'm confused as to why Illustrator doesn't.

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1 reply

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 25, 2024

Drag while holding shift to deselect.

You can also only select what's fully enclosed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-tn0-QCJW4 

Participant
April 25, 2024

Thanks, extremely useful on the enclosed selection mode! But the problem with shift-drag to deselect is you will really often end up selecting other things by accident while you're trying to deselect.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 25, 2024

That happens when you start the drag on a fill.

3 ways to prevent that:

turn on "Select object by path only" in the Preferences

use the lasso tool

work in Outline view