Select all objects within a group (not the group itself)

[Matthew Twomey]

Is there a shortcut way to do this? Right now, when I want to do this, I have to click the first object in the group, scroll down to the end and shift-select the last. Not a huge deal, but can be time consuming when I have a group of like 100 objects. I run into this when I want to do something like distribute the objects or rotate them individually but at the same time.

[Alfred]

1. Select All

2. Hide all via any checkbox in the Layers panel

3. Select the group in the Layers panel

4. Ungroup

The layers which were grouped will now be visible and selected. Amend them as necessary and then group them again if desired.

[Matthew Twomey]

Thanks - that helps. I lose the group name, but still easier than what I was doing..

[awakenedbyowls]

On 3/12/2021 at 9:43 PM, Alfred said:

1. Select All

2. Hide all via any checkbox in the Layers panel

3. Select the group in the Layers panel

4. Ungroup

The layers which were grouped will now be visible and selected. Amend them as necessary and then group them again if desired.

I don't understand what you are doing there. I just want to select 300 odd curves I just drew with the pen tool, expand stroke and then add together into one shape.

This is an issue I have experienced a few times so far in AD. In order to perform these operations in groups of objects you have to go into the layer and select every single one individually. There doesn't seem to be a way to just select everything in the group through the top layer of the group (which kind of seems like one of the reasons why you would want to group things in the first place) 

Instead I have to scroll through every single layer and select them all in order to do this.

Is there really no easy way to do this, because the way you described there seems as complicated as just selecting the objects individually.

Seems to be so many obvious, basic features that are missing in this software..

[loukash]

On 3/12/2021 at 10:04 PM, Matthew Twomey said:

Is there a shortcut way to do this?

2 hours ago, awakenedbyowls said:

Is there really no easy way to do this

Try this:

1. tag all groups, layers and objects you don't want to select with a color tag
2. even though the group children also appear as if having a tag color, the objects actually remain untagged (a bug, but in this case a "happy accident")
3. select one of the group children > Select Same > Tag Color

Another method, a variant of the above:

1. tag all groups, layers and objects you don't want to select with a layer name; any one random character will do!
2. make sure all group children are either unnamed or have the same name
3. select one of the group children > Select Same > Name

Both methods also work in Publisher and Photo via the Layers panel context menu "Select Same" commands.

But fair enough, these are just workarounds. A dedicated "Select Group Content" command would be more useful.

[awakenedbyowls]

30 minutes ago, loukash said:

Try this:

1. tag all groups, layers and objects you don't want to select with a color tag
2. even though the group children also appear as if having a tag color, the objects actually remain untagged (a bug, but in this case a "happy accident")
3. select one of the group children > Select Same > Tag Color

Another method, a variant of the above:

1. tag all groups, layers and objects you don't want to select with a layer name; any one random character will do!
2. make sure all group children are either unnamed or have the same name
3. select one of the group children > Select Same > Name

Both methods also work in Publisher and Photo via the Layers panel context menu "Select Same" commands.

But fair enough, these are just workarounds. A dedicated "Select Group Content" command would be more useful.

I see what you mean and I know about tagging and Select Same, but with so many other layers I found it easier just to copy the group onto another file and perform the operations there. Still more hassle than having to go through the whole list of objects though, but has the advantage of being less likely to cause the software to crash - which it nearly did before. I ended up adding them all together in chunks in the end. On a new file though it was more responsive.

Another handy way to get round this would be to be able to set the name of each layer as you draw them, but the only way I can see is to drop the layer then click on it and rename it which is obviously too laborious to be worth it. Again, this should be part of group functionality so why isn't it???

Why so many basic oversights. I thought this software was the nuts when I first started using it but lots of minor negs starting to surface. Are they all going to be fixed for a future update when my period of free updates runs out? That's an Adobe trick that is...

[awakenedbyowls]

I just worked out how to do this (for my purposes anyway) !

Just click on one object within the group and Select > Select Same > Fill Colour

It will select other objects on other layers that have the same fill colour, however if you take this into account during the design process OR you can select the group and change all the objects in the group to a new colour not in use by anything else

At least I thought that would work but something weird is happening when I perform a Boolean add - it all just seems to disappear? If I select all the objects in the group (but not the top layer of the group) it works but when I select all as per above it by defaults also selects the top layer as well and therefore (for reasons beyond me) it just doesn't work!