Tagged: select

How to select and move all items on an InDesign layer

Experienced InDesign users know the value of using Layers on complex documents, particularly ones where text, object and image items are stacked on top of each other.

Layer item selectOne handy shortcut is the ability to select all items on any particular layer, which you can do by either Option + Clicking the name of the Layer in the Layers panel, or by clicking the Item Indicator square on the far right of the Layer in the list. Performing either action will select all the items on that particular layer.

Now let’s say you want to move all the items from one layer to another. Simple. Just click that little Item Indicator square of the layer you want to move FROM and drag it to the layer you want to move it TO.

Easily select similar objects in Illustrator

If you work with complicated artwork in Adobe Illustrator, you’ve no doubt come across the task of having to select many objects that contain similar attributes, such as same color fill or stroke, Appearance attributes, etc. Thankfully, Illustrator has a few tools that can make your job much easier. If you select an object and visit the Select>Same menubar item, you’ll find several methods to accomplish your goal.

Select similar objects in Adobe Illustrator

Select similar objects in Adobe Illustrator

As you can see in the screenshot above, you have a wide variety of choices to make selecting similar objects easy.

Select & delete all guides at once in Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesignIf you’ve ever received an Adobe InDesign file from another designer or client that you need to work on, and upon opening found the document pages absolutely covered with useless Guides (Don’t you just hate that?), this little tip will ease your pain, and clear the document of unsightly and largely unnecessary guides. Rather than deleting guides one at a time, hit Command + Option + G then Delete. This selects all the guides on the page and deletes them. If you find the guides locked into position, hit Command + Option + ; to unlock them before selecting and deleting them.

Select and distribute guides easily in Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesignMy friends over at CreativeTechs have a great tip to help you evenly distribute guides across your page in Adobe InDesign. You could do it the hard way, using measurements and a steady hand, or the easy way as follows:

  • Set your first and last guide where you want them, then drag more guides out until you have as many as you need. You don’t need to worry about where they are, as long as they’re between the first and last.
  • Now drag the Selection tool (solid arrow) across all the guides so they’re selected (make sure you only have guides selected).
  • Now click on either the vertical or horizontal Distribute icon in the Control panel at the top of the screen. Your guides will automatically be evenly distributed between the first and last guides you set.

If you need more help, I recommend you click the link above because CreativeTechs has a great animation of the process.

Selecting guides quickly in Adobe InDesign

To select all the guides on an InDesign page at once, hit Command + Option + G. You can move them around by using the Arrow keys, or hit the Delete key to get rid of them all at once. This tip seems to be custom made for me because I frequently get files from a customer that have hundreds of guides on the page for lord-only-knows-why.

Quickly switch and select objects and layers in Photoshop

This may seem like a very basic technique, yet I see very few Photoshop users making use of it. If you want to quickly change layers. Press “V” to select the Move tool. Then Command + Click the object you want to work on. That’s it. The correct layer becomes active and you don’t need to navigate to your layers palette and scroll through the list to activate the layer you want to work on.