The Select Menu

VectorStyler provides numerous commands to make object selection based on some criteria or attribute of the objects. These commands can be accessed from the Select menu of the application menu.

Selection Commands

The following selection commands are available to make object selections based on the current canvas, artboard or selected objects:

Select All - Select all (selectable) objects on the current canvas. Invisible or locked objects are not selected. If the Artboard or Slices tool is active, this command will select all artboard or slices of the current canvas.
Select All on Artboard - Select all objects on the current artboard. The current artboard can be set from the artboard selector tool at the bottom of the document view, or by pressing the PageUp or PageDown keys.
Select All Inside View - Select all objects that fit into (or intersect with) the visible area of the current view, considering the zoom level and rotation of the document view.
Deselect - Clear the current selection. The selection can also be cleared by pressing the Escape key.
Invert Selection - Invert the selection, by selecting the currently unselected objects of the active canvas.
Select Inside Shapes - Select objects inside the shape of the selected objects.
Select Intersecting Shapes - Select objects intersecting the shape of the selected objects.
Reverse Selection - Reverse the order of object selection.
Select Again - Repeats the last attribute based selection type on the current object selection.
Select All on the Same Level - Select all siblings (on the same layer, or group) of the currently selected objects.
Select Previous - Select the previous object in the object stack, relative to the current selection.
Select Next - Select the next object in the object stack, relative to the current selection.
Select Parent - Select the container object of the selected objects.
Select All Members - Select all member objects of the selected groups.
Select First Member - Select the first member object inside each selected group.
Select Last Member - Select the last member object inside each selected group.
Select All Below - Select all objects that are below the currently selected objects.
Select All Above - Select all objects that are above the currently selected objects.
Select All on Other Layers - Select all objects that reside on other layers, than the currently selected objects.
Select All Locked - Select all locked objects on the current canvas. This command allows to select locked object to unlock them.
Select All Hidden - Select all hidden objects. Hidden objects can be selected using this command or using the Layers Panel.
Select Missing Reference - Select objects that contain dangling references to removed content or symbols. A symbol instance becomes invisible when the referenced symbol is removed. Dangling references can be removed, or the references replaced with existing symbols.

Selection Options

There are a number of options considered when making object selections. These options can be selected on the Select menu:

Intersecting Selection - Enable or disable the use of region intersecting selection mode. When enabled, objects intersected with the box or lasso marquee region will be selected. When disabled, objects must be inside the box or lasso region to be selected. This option is enabled by default.
Select by Outline - Enable or disable the object by outline selection mode. When enabled, objects can be selected by the point selector, only when clicking on their outline. This option is disabled by default.
Allow Locked Objects - Check to enable the selection of locked objects when selecting on the canvas.
Search for Locked Objects - Check to search for locked objects also when selecting by attribute or similarity.
Select Inside View - Check to limit selection by attribute inside the current view.
Select Inside Artboard - Check to limit selection by attribute inside the current artboard.
Select Inside Layer - Check to limit selection by attribute inside the current layer.
Inside Selection - Check to search for objects inside the current selection.
Select Siblings - Check to search for objects at the same place (layer or group) as the selected object(s).
Search Neighboring Objects - Check to select objects immediately above and below the selected object when using selection by attribute.
Default Style Picker - Select the alternate the style picker mode.
Alternate Style Picker - Select the alternate the style picker mode. This option controls how the object style picker tool works. When disabled, the style picker will select the target object at a Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) click, and then apply the style of the clicked object onto the target object. When disabled, the style picker will pick the style from an object clicked with the Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) click, and clicking objects will change the object style to the picked style.
Drag&Drop Styles - Check to allow the dragging and dropping of styles with the style picker tool.
Default Shape Picker - Select the alternate the shape picker mode.
Alternate Shape Picker - Select the alternate the shape picker mode. This option controls how the object shape picker tool works. When disabled, the shape picker will select the target object at a Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) click, and then apply the shape of the clicked object onto the target object. When disabled, the shape picker will pick the shape from an object clicked with the Command click, and clicking objects will change the object shape to the picked shape.
Drag&Drop Shapes - Check to allow the dragging and dropping of shapes with the shape picker tool.
Pick Shape Effect - Enable or disable the picking of the shape effects by the shape picker tool. When enabled, the shape picker tool will also pick and apply the shape effects. When disabled, only the object shape is picked and changed.
Referencing Shape Picker - Enable or disable the creation of references to the original shape in the shape picker. When enabled, instead of copying the picked shape, a reference is created to the source object, and the shape is applied as a shape reference to the source. This creates a dynamic link to the source object, and any changes to the original shape will be mirrored on all objects using that shape. When disabled, the shape will be copied by the shape picker tool.

Select by Attribute

Objects can be selected by attributes, based on the current selection, or by searching for specific attributes.

To select objects with similar attributes, select an object first and than select a similarity rule from the Select - Similar menu. The available similarity rules are:

Content Style - Select objects with the same content style as in the selected object.
Fill and Stroke - Select objects with the same fill and stroke attributes as in the selected object.
Fill Color - Select objects with the same fill color as in the selected object.
Stroke Color - Select objects with the same stroke color as in the selected object.
Stroke Width - Select objects with the same stroke width as in the selected object.
Stroke Style - Select objects with the same stroke attributes as in the selected object.
Opacity - Select objects with the same opacity as in the selected object.
Transparency - Select objects with the same transparency attributes as in the selected object.
Content Type - Select objects with the same content type (i.e image, group, pdf) as in the selected object.

Objects can be selected by searching for objects with a specific attribute, regardless of the current selection. The following attribute search options are available:

Transparent - Select all objects using opacity or transparency masks.
Filled - Select all objects containing a fill.
Outlined - Select all objects containing a stroke outline.
No Fill - Select all objects with no fill.
No Outline - Select all objects with no stroke.
Has Transparency - Select all objects using transparency masks.
Composited - Select all objects using blending modes.
Cloned - Select all objects that are sources of clone objects.
Clone - Select all clone objects.
Image - Select all objects containing images.

Markers and Presets

Named object markers can be associated with objects and used to select the object. An object can contain more than one marker, and selections can be made by collecting objects with a specific marker. The creation and use of object markers is described in more detail in the Object Markers section.

The following Select - Markers commands are used to manage and use object markers:

Setup Markers - Open the Object Markers view used to manage the list of available named object markers. New markers can be created and existing ones removed.
Object Marker - Open a list of available object markers, to apply a marker on the selected objects. The markers used in the selected objects are checked in the menu.
Select Marker - Open a list of available object markers, used to create a selection based on a marker. A marker is checked if objects with that marker are selected. Otherwise, the marker menu is not checked. To select objects with a marker, select the marker name in the menu. The objects with the marker are added to the current selection.

Selection Presets

The Select menu contains commands used to create and recall selection presets, and to make selections using previously saved Find/Replace presets. Creating and using selection presets is described in the Saving Selections section. Creating and using Find/Replace presets is described in the Find and Replace section.

Save Selection - Create a new selection preset from the current object selection. Only object selections can be saved as selection presets.
Selection - Open a list of selection presets available in the current document. Select a preset name, to make an object selection saved with that name.
Select with Find Preset - Open a list of previously saved Find/Replace presets. Find/Replace presets can be created using the Find/Replace panel. Select a preset name, to make an object selection by finding objects using the criteria stored in the find preset.

Selection Context

Isolated editing mode is used to isolate a selection and changes to objects inside a specific layer or group. Isolated mode can also be used to draw inside an object, creating a clipping group. The isolated context determines which layer or object content is edited. The following Select menu commands are available to manage the isolated mode:

Isolate Selection - Isolate the selection and editing context to the currently selected object.
Clear Isolation - Clear the isolated mode editing, returning to the canvas.
Exit Isolation - Exit the current isolated mode into its parent group or layer.

Drawing Context

When drawing new objects, the objects are placed on the current canvas, inside the current layer. The current layer can be selected in the layers panel. In some cases it is required that new objects are placed at a specific location in the object stack, or inside a specific object. The following commands control object placement, when drawing new objects:

Draw Normal - Place new objects on the top of the current layer or group.
Draw Behind - Place new objects at the bottom of the current layer or group.
Draw Below - Place new objects below the currently selected object.
Draw Above - Place new objects above the currently selected object.
Draw Target - Set the drawing target object to the selected object. New objects will be placed inside the drawing target object. This is similar to the isolated mode, with the difference, that here only the creation of new objects is isolated.
Clear Target - Clear the current drawing target, and new objects will be placed on the current layer.
Exit Target - Exit the current drawing target into its parent group or layer.