Selecting objects in AI-10 and gripsizes 1

[RLie]

I'm fearly new to Illustrator and come from Coreldraw, so please forgive me my ignorance....
I have two questions......

When I want to select a series of objects in CD i drag a rectangle around them, ensuring that other objects i don't want to select, are not completely within the rectangle (so this takes ONE mouseclick).

If I want to do the same in AI i cannot prevent other objects to be selected also if the selection rectangle crosses any part of them.
So my question is:
Is there a way in AI to select 100 small independant objects on top of 100 other big undependant objects without 101 mouseclicks?
(that is also without using layers or groups etc)

second question:
I Use a 1152x864 screen. With this screensize the grips on selected objects are very small and i often click next to them when i want to work fast. On a 800x600 screen they are much bigger and easier to catch but who wants to work on that screensize......
Is there a way in AI to increase the default gripsizes for selected object boundery boxes or node-points?

Thanks for any suggestions......

 

[dimoj]

P.S. I`ve recently had to work on a simple web button consisting of three concentrical circles, of wich the topmost two, were frequently altered.

If you don't like locking objects then simple select any one of your three circles and use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl(Cmd)+Alt+[ or ] to switch which overlapping oblect is selected.

 

[merlin3]

ok first answering to blueark

-"there`s no simple way to get the object without the background selected
Yes there is. You mentioned one already, the lasso selection tools."

--nope. imagine this: big black rectangle with 3 little, nonconcentrical, nonoverlapping, very close together, circles, somwhere inside it. and i mean really little, like u cant click them unless u zoom in. if u use the lasso tool, as u sugested, then u should go from one to onother, without being able NOT to cross through the big black rectangle too. which means that at the end u have seleted the three little circles plus the bigbrectangle, since the lasso selects everything it passes through. sure there are 1000 solutions for this, i gave one with the zoom, and so on and so on, u can even shift clik the black rectangle out of the way, but what i`m talking about here are the main selection tools, and main selection methods that are deficitary. u see with the inbound method, the one corel uses, is sufficient to drag a selection from somwhere outside the bbrectangle, that completely include all the lil circles (easy task sice they are very close together), and there u go, one click-drag. anything AI has to offer is at least one click, one keystroke more than with this method.

-"U go screw around with the multilayer, multigrouping same stylles junk
What are you talking about? You don't want to use layers, then don't. You can still use the layers palette to find what you want."

--offcourse i`m using layers, grouping, locking, select same>, select object>, and everything. just because i`m complaining about the main selection tools, doesn`t mean i`m a stupid duck that drags objects on the desktop. but again, imagine how would it be that in the predefine shapes list there would be everything, every little star and magnet, any stupid shape that u can imagine, but not the rectangle. now, u could still get away with it, but it would be very couterproductive. U see, i was talking about those half-a-second selections, the main selections tools; sure there are alternate ways of dealing with selected objects that will get u through in the end, but it will also take u alot longer, if not at least to say,stress u down. U went forward and gave me two examples of these: ctrl+y, and locking. this is what i meant from keepin me away from the junk. sure i`m aware of them, corel had them too, but this is NOT my point. Nevertheless objects layout can get so complicated sometimes, that not even the corel selection method wont help. And this why i praise the lasso tools. That is, for better understanding, the current AI method can be usefull, sometimes (and here i`ve praied the lasso toolls), only that this happens in 1 of 50 selections (2%). So it is common sense to strugle selecting only in those 2%, and not in the remaining 98%.

-"And it`s not even that much of an option to implement, freehand has it, u can change between the two selection modes
Huh?! You say Illustrator has all these selection modes, and now ask why they don't have an option? I don't understand."

--U see Illustrator does not have the both methods, since both the main selection tools and the lasso ones, work the same way, they select whatever they go trough. Freehand has both methods, so u can configure the selection tools to behave in both modes.


-"more intuitive for many because they so closely resemble the desktop model. Imagine trying to group select a bunch of folders on your desktop the corel way: anything half selected wouldn't be included, try again. To me, that's frustrating. Others may have a different view."

--well for start ur not having a big folder icon on the background that u don`t want selected, which is mostlike the case in drawing. then again all the folders are lined up smoothly, etc.

Let me explain the logic here:
Lets say we have a selection and we`re not happy with it. That can be out of two reasons:
1. we have selected smthng we don`t want
2. we`ve misselected smthng

so were gonna do it all over again.
oki, here`s the inbound(corel) way

1. well u should draw a rectangle that only includes the objects that u want selected, however 1/50 cases, this will be imposible, still that is only 2% of the cases.
2. oh, that`s really hard! u should draw a BIGGER rectangle!

here`s the AI way:

1. hmm, well u should start either clicking or shift-clicking, depends on which group is less numerous. really nonstressing procedure!
2. u should draw a bigger rectangle too, but watch what ur touching cos u might get unwanties in the way!. There are the lasso tools as well, should really help u with that, thanks AI for them!.

 

[blueark]

hmm, I'm still not really sure what argument you're trying to make, although I haven't had much sleep the last few days, so it's probably my fault.

From what I can see, you're used to working a certain way, and you find it frustrating that Illustrator works a different way. Personally, I'm used to Illustrator, and I find Corel, and to a much lesser extent, Freehand less intuitive and more frustrating. Having said that, it's just my own personal preference, and I agree that both those packages have some wonderful features.

I think no matter what program you use, you're going to come across situations that you wish you had more suitable software. The way I work, Illustrator's selection tools (even the main ones) work perfectly 99% of the time. You obviously work differently, and your point about having more modes for the selection tools might be the answer.

Try this link:

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@98.5XrhaTrrQeq.1@.eecfd7c

It's basically a feature request forum on Adobe's site. I don't think anyone has requested the features you mention yet, so why not start a new thread and see if it gains any support. Personally, I think it might be a good idea IF it's given as an option. In practice, I would probably ignore it, but if it helps cut down on the amount of CDR files out there, then I would welcome it!