Select objects

InDesign provides the following selection methods and tools:

Allows you to select text and graphics frames, and work with an object using its bounding box. If you click the content grabber (the donut) that appears when you hold the mouse pointer over an image, you can manipulate the image within the frame without switching to the Direct Selection tool.

Allows you to select the contents of a frame, such as a placed graphic, or work directly with editable objects, such as paths, rectangles, or type that has been converted to a text outline.

Allows you to select text in a text frame, on a path, or in a table.

Allows you to select an object’s container (or frame) and its contents. The Select submenu also lets you select objects based on their position relative to other objects. To view the Select submenu, choose Object > Select. You can also right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) an object to display its context menu, and then choose Select.

Lets you the select the content using the Select Content button  or the container using the Select Container button . You can also use the Select Next Object or Select Previous Object to select the next or previous objects in a group or on a spread.

Allow you to select or deselect all objects on the spread and pasteboard, depending on which tool is active and what is already selected. Choose Edit > Select All or Edit >Deselect All.

Select objects

An object is any printable element on a page or on the pasteboard, such as a path or an imported graphic. A frame or path is a shape you draw or a container for text or graphics. A bounding box is a rectangle with eight selection handles that represents an object’s vertical and horizontal dimensions. Before you can modify an object, you must select it using a selection tool.

There are two ways to select an object in InDesign:

• You can use the Selection tool to select the object’s bounding box for performing general layout tasks, such as positioning and sizing objects. When selecting an image, you can use the Selection tool to select either the frame or the image within the frame.

• You can use the Direct Selection tool to select the contents of a container (such as an imported graphic) or individual points on a path for tasks involving resizing imported graphics, drawing and editing paths, and editing text.

With rectangular objects, it can be difficult to tell the difference between the object’s bounding box and the path of the object itself. A bounding box always displays eight large hollow anchor points. A rectangular path always displays four small anchor points (which can be hollow or solid).

Select a bounding box

For any object, you can select its bounding box—a rectangle that represents the object’s horizontal and vertical dimensions. (For grouped objects, the bounding box is a dashed rectangle.) The bounding box is also called a container. The bounding box makes it possible to quickly move, duplicate, and scale the object without having to use any other tool. For paths, the bounding box makes it easy to work with an entire object without accidentally altering the anchor points that determine its shape.

When you select one or more objects with the Selection tool, you see a bounding box that indicates the size of each object. If you don’t see a bounding box when an object is selected, you may have selected the object using the Direct Selection tool .

If you click a frame and it is not selected, the frame may be a locked item, it may be on a locked layer, or it may be a parent page item. See Unable to select objects.

Select a path or points on a path

Paths in InDesign are defined by anchor points, end points, and direction lines. You select anchor points and end points using the Direct Selection tool.

Select text inside a frame

• To select text by dragging, click on a text frame using the Type tool. An insertion point appears.
• To create an insertion point in text, double-click a text frame using any selection tool. InDesign switches to the Type tool automatically.

Select an object inside a frame

Select multiple objects

• To select all the objects in a rectangular area, use the Selection tool  to drag a marquee over the objects you want to select.
• To select nonadjacent objects, use the Selection tool to select an object and then press Shift as you click additional objects. Clicking selected objects deselects them.
• To add more objects to a selection, press Shift as you use the Selection tool to drag a marquee over additional objects. Dragging over selected objects deselects them.

Select or deselect all objects

To deselect all objects on the spread and its pasteboard, choose Edit >Deselect All. Or, with the Selection tool or Direct Selection tool, click at least 3 pixels away from any object.

The Select Allcommand has a different effect depending on the situation:

• If the Selection tool  is active, all paths and frames on the spread and pasteboard are selected, with their bounding boxes active.

• If the Direct Selection tool  is active and an object is direct-selected, Select All selects all the anchor points of that object but does not select any other object. If nothing is selected, Select All selects all the path objects on the spread and pasteboard.

• If the Type tool is active and there is an insertion point in a text frame (indicated by a flashing vertical line), Select All selects all text in that text frame and any text frames threaded to it, but selects no other objects.

• If an object in a group is selected, Select All selects the rest of the objects in the group but no other objects on the spread.

Unable to select objects

Not being able to select an object may be the result of the following issues:

• The object is covered by another object in a stack. Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and then click the same place repeatedly until you’ve selected the frame or group you want. See Select nested or overlapping objects.

• The object is a parent page item, as indicated by a dotted border. To select a parent page item, either turn to the parent page that is applied to the document page, or override the parent page item. See Override a parent item.

• The object is locked using the Object > Lock command. Choose Object > Unlock All On Spread. See Lock or unlock objects.

• The object is on a locked layer. Click the lock icon next to the layer in the Layers panel to unlock the layer. See Lock or unlock layers.

Select nested or overlapping objects

When a frame contains an object, the contained object is said to be nested inside a container, or frame. Three common kinds of nesting are: paths inside frames, frames inside frames, and groups inside groups. Always be aware of exactly which objects or object attributes you need to select, which ones are currently selected, and which selection tools to use to modify selections.

You control selections in nested groups using the Direct Selection and Selection tools, as well as the Select Content and Select Container buttons. You can select text characters using the Type tool at any time, no matter how deeply a text frame is nested.

Select nested, grouped, or overlapping objects

When you nest objects or place objects on top of each other on the same layer, it can be difficult to select a single object or frame. The Object menu and context menu contain selection options to make it easier to select the object you want.

Select multiple nested objects

Selection options

Options on the Select submenu (choose Object > Select or choose Select on the context menu) help you select overlapping, nested, or grouped objects. The availability of some options depends on the type of objects you’re working with. When using the context menu, the object selected depends on the position of the pointer.

Selects the object at the top of the stack.

Selects the object just above the current object.

Selects the object just below the current object.

Selects the object at the bottom of the stack.

Selects the content of the selected graphics frame, or, if a group is selected, selects an object within the group. You can also click the Select Content button in the Control panel.

Selects the frame enclosing the selected object, or, if an object within a group is selected, selects the group that contains it. You can also click the Select Container button in the Control panel.

Selects the next or previous object in the group if the selected object is part of a group, or, if an ungrouped object is selected, selects the next or previous object on the spread. Shift-click to skip by five. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) to select the first or last object in a stack.

Arrange objects in a stack

Overlapping objects are stacked in the order in which they are created or imported. You can use the Arrange submenu to change the stacking order of objects.

The Layers panel also helps determine the stacking order of objects. The order of each layer in the Layers panel determines whether objects in a layer appear in front of or behind objects on other layers. The order of objects within each layer determines the stacking order of those objects within that layer. You can drag the objects within a layer or use the Object > Arrange menu commands to control stacking within each layer. If you haven’t created any layers, your document contains just one stack of objects on the single default layer. Objects on parents exist at the back of each named layer.