Selecting Objects

All InDesign objects ‚ unassigned shapes , text and picture frames , and straight and curved lines ‚ have at least two levels of selection. You can select the object itself, or you can select the rectangular bounding box that encloses the object. (For rectangular objects, the bounding box and the shape are the same.) The tool that you choose ‚ either the Direct Selection tool or the Selection tool ‚ determines what you can do to the object you select:

• The Direct Selection tool lets you select any of the individual anchor points (and direction handles of freeform shapes and curved lines) on an object. If you click with the Direct Selection tool on an object that has a bounding box, the shape within is selected; the bounding box is not selected. You can also move an object with the Direct Selection tool by clicking within the object and dragging.

• The Selection tool lets you select an entire object by clicking anywhere in the object. This is the best tool to use if you want to move or resize an object. (You can also move objects with the Direct Selection tool.) When you click on an object with the Selection tool, the object's bounding box is selected.

  QuarkXPress User ‚  

  The difference between the Selection tool and the Direct Selection tool takes some getting used to for QuarkXPress users. In terms of working with content, the Direct Selection tool is much like QuarkXPress's Content tool, but it also lets you edit frames as if they were B ƒ zier objects. For example, if the Direct Selection tool is selected and you drag a point on the frame, you'll move that point and, thus, change the shape of the object ‚ a rectangle would be converted into a polygon, since the lines immediately adjacent to the moved point will move with the point, while the rest of the frame will not be affected. In QuarkXPress, if the Content tool is selected and you drag a point on the frame, you'll resize the frame (perhaps nonproportionally) but the entire side(s) adjacent to the point will move with the point, so a rectangle would still be a rectangle. To change a frame in the way that QuarkXPress does with both the Content and Item tools, use the Selection tool in InDesign.

  Cross-Reference ‚  

  You'll find more information about using the Direct Selection tool to select and change the shape of objects by dragging anchor points and direction handles in Chapter 27.

Here's how to select a frame or line with the Selection tool:

1. Select the Selection tool by clicking on it or, if the Type tool is not selected, by pressing V.

2. Move the pointer anywhere within an object, then click and release.

   To select an unassigned shape with no background color , you must click on its edge. If you click within the shape, the object is not selected.

When you release the mouse button, the object you clicked on ‚ or the object's bounding box if it has one ‚ is displayed with a blue outline and eight resizing handles (four on the corners and four on the midpoints of the sides), as shown in Figure 11-1. Figure 11-2 shows the same text frame selected via the Direct Selection tool, with one of the points being dragged to reshape the frame.

Figure 11-1: When you select a frame with the Selection tool, in this case an oval text frame, the bounding box is displayed with eight resizing handles.

Figure 11-2: When you select a frame with the Direct Selection tool, in this case an oval text frame, the frame's control points, or nodes, are displayed. Here, I am moving one of those points. Note how it reshapes ‚ not resizes ‚ the frame.

Tip ‚  

You can also select an object with the Selection tool by clicking and dragging a rectangle. Simply click on an empty portion of the page or pasteboard near the object you want to select and drag out a rectangle that intersects the object (you don't have to enclose the entire object). Clicking and dragging is a handy way to select multiple objects.

Selecting overlapping objects

You'll often have multiple objects overlapping in your layout, with some objects completely obscured by others. So how do you select them? By using the new Select menu option in the Object menu. Figure 11-3 shows the Select submenu and its options.

Figure 11-3: The new Select submenu in the Object menu.

New Feature ‚  

InDesign CS adds the Select submenu, which provides new controls for object selection, to the Object menu.

The first four options let you select another object relative to the currently selected object:

• First Object Above (Option+Shift+ z +] or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+]) selects the topmost object.

• Next Object Above (Option+ z +] or Ctrl+Alt+]) selects the object immediately on top of the current object.

• Next Object Below (Option+ z +[ or Ctrl+Alt+[) selects the object immediately under the current object.

• Last Object Below (Option+Shift+ z +[ or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+[) selects the bottommost object.

If no objects are selected, InDesign will base its selection on the creation order.

Tip ‚  

You can also access these four selection options by Control+clicking or right-clicking an object and choosing the Select menu from the contextual menu.

The Select submenu has four other options:

• If an object has content (text or picture) and you've selected its frame, choose Object ‚ Select ‚ Select Content to choose the content within the object.

• If an object has content (text or picture) and you've selected its content, choose Object ‚ Select ‚ Select Container to choose the frame.

• If you have selected an object in a group of objects, using the Direct Selection tool, choose Object ‚ Select ‚ Previous Item to navigate to the previous object in the group.

• Similarly, if you have selected an object in a group of objects, using the Direct Selection tool, choose Object ‚ Select ‚ Next Item to navigate to the previous object in the group.

  Note ‚  

  Object creation order determines what is "previous" or "next" in a group.

Selecting multiple objects

When an object is selected, you can move or modify it. When several objects are selected, you can move or modify all the objects at once, saving you the time and drudgery of selecting and performing the same modification to several objects one at a time. You have several options for selecting multiple objects. You can

• Choose the Selection tool and hold down the Shift key while clicking in succession on the objects you want to select.

• Choose either the Selection tool or the Direct Selection tool, then click on an empty portion of the page and drag a rectangle around any portion of each object you want to select. Make sure you don't click on an item or you'll move it when you drag.

  • If you use the Selection tool, the bounding box of each item is selected. You can resize any of the bounding boxes, but the anchor points and direction lines of the shapes within are not selected and cannot be moved.

  • If you use the Direct Selection tool, the anchor points and direction handles of the shapes in the bounding boxes are selected. You can change the shape of any of the objects by dragging an anchor point or direction handle.

• If you want to select all items on a page or spread, choose Edit ‚ Select All or press z +A or Ctrl+A. (If the Type tool is selected and a text frame is active when you choose Select All, you'll highlight all the text, if any, in the frame.) If the Direct Selection tool is selected when you choose Select All, the anchor points and direction handles of the shapes in the selected objects' bounding boxes are selected. If any other tool is selected when you choose Select All, the bounding boxes of the objects are selected.

  Tip ‚  

  To select a master item on a document page, you must hold down Shift+ z or Ctrl+Shift as you click on it. For more information about using master pages, see Chapter 7.

Deselecting objects

A selected object will remain selected until you cause it to become deselected, and there are many reasons you might want to deselect an item. For example, you might want to deselect a text frame if you want to see how it looks when displayed without the frame's in and out ports visible. Or you might want to simply "let go" of an object you just finished working on. There are several ways to deselect a selected object. You can

• Click on an empty portion of the page with either of the selection tools selected.

• Hold down the Shift key with either of the selection tools selected and click on the object you want to deselect.

• Choose any of the object-creation tools (the Pen tool, the Line tool, or any of the shape- and frame-creation tools), then click and drag to create a new object.

• If you want to deselect all items on a page or spread, choose Edit ‚ Deselect All or press Shift+ z +A or Ctrl+Shift+A. (If the Type tool is selected and a text frame is active when you choose Deselect All, you'll deselect any text that's highlighted in the frame.)