Select or cancel the selection of objects

You have several ways in Blend for Visual Studio 2012 to select objects on the artboard or to cancel their selection.

To select an object using the Selection tool

  • Using the Selection tool 2ff91340-477e-4efa-a0f7-af20851e4daa, select the object on the artboard. You can select the Selection tool in the following ways:

    • Click Selection2ff91340-477e-4efa-a0f7-af20851e4daa in the Tools panel.

    • Press V.

    • Hold the Ctrl key.

    Tip

    To select an object that is underneath another object, hold down Alt and click once for each layer of objects.

    Clicking an object on the artboard when you are using the Selection tool activates the parent container of the object.

    For more information, see Make a layout panel the active container (Blend for Visual Studio).

To select an object using the Direct Selection tool

  • Click Direct Selection 6dd6571f-c116-451d-8dd2-1f88b8406362 in the Tools panel, and then select the object on the artboard. Double-clicking an object on the artboard when you are using the Direct Selection tool activates the parent container of the object.

To select an object in the Objects and Timeline panel

  • In the Objects and Timeline panel, click the object.

    To select all objects under the root container object ([Grid]), click Select All on the Edit menu. If any objects under the root container object contain child objects, the child objects are not selected.

To select an object on the artboard

  • On the artboard, right-click an object, point to Set Current Selection, and then click an object on the shortcut menu. The Set Current Selection shortcut menu displays all objects in the hierarchy, starting with the object that was right-clicked, and ending with the topmost object (for example, the root [Grid] object).

To select more than one object at a time

  • Do one of the following:

    • Hold down Ctrl when you select multiple objects.

    • In the Objects and Timeline panel, hold down Shift when you select two objects that are in the same parent container. Holding Shift selects all objects between those two objects.

    • Click Direct Selection6dd6571f-c116-451d-8dd2-1f88b8406362 in the Tools panel, and then, starting in an empty part of the artboard, drag to draw a marquee around the objects that you want to select.

To cancel the selection of one or more objects

  • Do one of the following:

    • In the Tools panel, click either Selection 2ff91340-477e-4efa-a0f7-af20851e4daa or Direct Selection6dd6571f-c116-451d-8dd2-1f88b8406362, and then hold down Ctrl when you click the object on the artboard.

    • Hold down Ctrl, and then click the object in the Objects and Timeline panel.

To cancel the selection of all objects

  • Do one of the following:

    • On the Edit menu, click Select None (Ctrl+Shift+A).

    • On the artboard, either click the top bar of the artboard or click a blank area. The root [Grid] is selected.

See Also

Concepts

Moving and transforming objects