Before you can modify an object, you need to distinguish it from the objects around it. You do that by selecting the object. Once you’ve selected an object, or a part of an object, you can edit it.

Illustrator provides the following selection methods and tools:

Isolation mode

Lets you quickly isolate a group of objects or a sublayer from all other art in your document. When in isolation mode, all nonisolated objects in the document appear dimmed and are not selectable or editable.

Layers panel

Lets you quickly and precisely select individual or multiple objects. You can select a single object (even if it’s in a group), all objects within a layer, and entire groups.

Selection tool

  Lets you select objects and groups by clicking or dragging over them. You can also select groups within groups and objects within groups.

Direct Selection tool

Lets you select individual anchor points or path segments by clicking on them, or select an entire path or group by selecting any other spot on the item. You can also select one or more objects in a group of objects.

Group Selection tool

Lets you select an object within a group, a single group within multiple groups, or a set of groups within the artwork. Each additional click adds all objects from the next group in the hierarchy.

Lasso tool

Lets you select objects, anchor points, or path segments by dragging around all or part of the object.

Magic Wand tool

Lets you select objects of the same color, stroke weight, stroke color, opacity, or blending mode by clicking the object.

Live Paint Selection tool

Lets you select faces (areas enclosed by paths) and edges (portions of paths between intersections) of Live Paint groups.

Selection commands

(located in the Select menu) Let you quickly select or deselect all objects, and select objects based on their position relative to other objects. You can also select all objects of a specific type or that share specific attributes, and save or load selections.

To temporarily activate the last-used selection tool when using another type of tool, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS).

For a video on selecting and manipulating objects, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0034.