Selecting Objects in Canvas Envision

Selecting Objects

Selecting Objects

When you want to perform some operations to objects, you must select an object or objects first. Objects can be a shape, texts, images, tables, groups, composite objects and so on.

To Select an Object

  1. Select the Select tool from the Navigate panel in the Home tab of the Ribbon. The mouse point in the Page Layout area is  .

  2. Move the mouse pointer over on an object you want to select. The mouse pointer becomes .

  3. Click on the object.

The Select tool can be also accessed in the Draw tab of the Ribbon and at the right side of the Status bar.

 

          

 

To Select Multiple Objects

  1. Click on one object with Select tool.

  2. Shift- click each object you want to select.

You can deselect an object in the selected objects by Shift-click.

 

A picture containing light, object Description automatically generated

You can also drag with the Select tool to enclose the objects that you want to select.

 

 

 

        

 

Ctrl-drag to touch the objects that you want to select.

 

                   

 

To Select All Objects

  1. Click the Select drop-list from the Navigate panel of the Home tab of the Ribbon.

  2. Select Select All.

Press Ctrl+A instead to select all objects.

 

To Select Objects across Layers

  1. Click the Select drop-list from the Navigate panel of the Home tab of the Ribbon.

  2. Select Select Across Visible Layers. When it is enabled, it will show the checkmark (✓) at the left side of the command.

  3. Click an objects or objects.

You can select objects across visible layers, even when the Select Across Visible Layers is turned off, by pressing the Tab key and click an object on another layer including the linked Master Page.

 

When you want to enable the Select Across Visible Layers by default, Select the Select Across Visible Layers checkbox in the Application Preferences dialog box. (File | Options – Selection and editing).

 

 

To Select an Object behind Other Objects

  1. Select the object in front.

  2. Press the Tab key and click the object again.

  3. Repeat step 2, if necessary.

 

This Tab-click method does not work to select an object behind the overlapping objects in a Group object.

 

When you do not want to do this operation pressing the Tab key, you can enable the Select overlapped object by click checkbox in the Application Preferences dialog box (File | Options – Selection and editing).

 

 

To Invert Selection

  1. Select objects that you do not want to select first.

  2. Click the Select drop-list from the Navigate panel of the Home tab of the Ribbon.

  3. Select Invert Selection.

To Deselect an Object or Objects

Do one of the following:

  • Click a blank area outside of the selected objects.

  • Press Esc.

 

Selection Indicators

Envision indicates that an object is selected by displaying the object’s bounding box, a rectangle with small gray circles (called handles), at each corner and side midpoint.

To Change the Size of the Handles

  1. Select the File tab of the Ribbon.

  2. Select Options in the Backstage View.

  3. Select Selection and editing in the Application Preferences dialog box.

  4. Select either Small, Medium, or Large from the Selection handle size drop-down list.

  5. Click OK.

Small

Medium

Large

 

To Change the Selection Option for over 1000 Objects

  1. Select the File tab of the Ribbon.

  2. Select Options in the Backstage View.

  3. Select Selection and editing in the Application Preferences dialog box.

  4. Select or deselect the Show each bounding box for selection of over 1000 objects

  5. Click OK.

If 1000 or more objects are selected, bounding boxes around each individual object will not be displayed. Instead, one large selection boundary will be drawn.

The option is not selected by default.

The option is selected.

 

Invisible Selection

When an object is selected, its bounding box is visible even if it has attributes (the same color as the background, for example) that make the object itself invisible.

2 objects of the same fill color are selected .

Change the color of one of the 2 objects.

 

Also, a selected object’s bounding box is visible even if it’s covered by other objects.

A smaller object is also selected

behind the larger object.

Bring the smaller object

in front of the larger object.

 

Selection Information

When an object is selected, the object type is indicated in the Status bar.

When more than one object is selected, the Status bar shows the number of selected objects.

 

Key Object

The first object selected is called the “Key Object”. The key object has the solid blue bounding box with small gray circles. If several objects are selected, the other selected objects have the solid blue bounding box with small white circles. The key object may affect alignment and distribution of the other objects. (See Aligning and Distributing Objects.)

 

To Switch the Key Object with Multiple Objects Selected

  1. Select two or more objects.

  2. Right-click the object that you want to be the key object.

  3. Select Make Key Object in the context menu.

To Add the Key Object to a Selection

  1. Select an object or objects.

  2. Press Shift and Right-click the object that you want to add to the selection, but also designate as key object.

  3. Select Make Key Object in the context menu.

The object becomes part of the selection as the key object.

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