"Select All on Current Layer" added to Select menu

[Ash]

Apps: Publisher and Designer
Platforms: macOS and Windows

From the select menu you will find a new option of "Select All on Current Layer" with a default shortcut of shift-cmd-A on macOS and shift-ctrl-A on Windows.

This was requested as a quick way to achieve the same result of unchecking "edit all layers" in layers panel and doing Select All. A good example would be if you want to select everything on an artboard, you can now just click on the artboard label and hit shift-cmd-A.

[anto]

For me, this wording of the function is confusing. If I don't have a Layer, it selects everything from the page.
If there is a Layer, it selects everything from it.
If there is a Layer and other objects on the page, and you select an object, the function selects all the objects on the page include Layer.

So it turns out that everything we create in the Layers panel is created on an invisible layer? Then you need to have this initial layer created automatically.

 

[EricP]

also, it would be great to have a similar option for "select same" functions. If you have several artboards, "select same fill colour" will select objects in all artboards, which is not what you always want.

Let's say you want to create colour variants of the same design, you'd want to select all objects with same colour within an artboard and change their colours without affecting objects in other artboards. 

It would be great to have a way to apply the select same to the selected "layer", be it an artboard or a group of objects or multiple layer selection. 

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, EricP said:

It would be great to have a way to apply the select same to the selected "layer", be it an artboard or a group of objects or multiple layer selection. 

There is "a way": Toggling off Edit All Layers in the Layers panel will do that for you.

I see your point about extending the new functionality, somehow, to Select Same and Select Object. For those, perhaps a new "on same layer" option on their submenu, like the current Select Hidden Objects option at the bottom of the menu?

 

 

[EricP]

Oh thanks Walt for the tip ! I did not realise Edit All Layers would limit select same to the current artboard. That's doing what I was asking for. Thanks !

[Intuos5]

16 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

There is "a way": Toggling off Edit All Layers in the Layers panel will do that for you.

I see your point about extending the new functionality, somehow, to Select Same and Select Object. For those, perhaps a new "on same layer" option on their submenu, like the current Select Hidden Objects option at the bottom of the menu?

Yes, I definitely think it should be in the select same submenu and/or on the toolbar/ ribbon. In the select same menu it is a little less obvious whether or not the option is enabled. And I do want to retain multi-layer editing on my current artboard, while limiting selections to the current artboard only. The select same function would be close to complete with this option added.

[anto]

Going back to my previous entry.
If I select a rectangle in Layers panel and then click Select All on Current Layer button, it will select all the rectangle layers. Why?
Is a rectangle a layer? But another rectangle is also a layer. But layers and Layers are different. In this case, this function is no different from Select All function.
I think the program should have given a warning: You haven't selected any Layers. To use the function, create or select a Layer.
If a rectangle is not a layer (Layer), why does the function select all rectangles?

[Chris B]

Hi anto,

I also found this a little bit puzzling and queried it and it was suggested that the behaviour was by design. I personally think it ought to be greyed out if you are not on an actual Layer. In this instance, it seems to function exactly like Select All

[Sean P]

4 hours ago, anto said:

Going back to my previous entry.
If I select a rectangle in Layers panel and then click Select All on Current Layer button, it will select all the rectangle layers. Why?
Is a rectangle a layer? But another rectangle is also a layer. But layers and Layers are different. In this case, this function is no different from Select All function.
I think the program should have given a warning: You haven't selected any Layers. To use the function, create or select a Layer.
If a rectangle is not a layer (Layer), why does the function select all rectangles?

This is By Design - it will restrict selection based specifically on the 'Layer' type (that you get if you select 'Layer > New Layer'). For example with a red rectangle selected it will select all the objects inside 'Layer2'. With a yellow rectangle selected it will select everything inside 'Layer1'

[anto]

4 minutes ago, Sean P said:

This is By Design - it will restrict selection based specifically on the 'Layer' type (that you get if you select 'Layer > New Layer')

I understood that. But if there is no "Layer" type, the function shouldn't work, but it selects everything.

[anto]

11 хвилин тому Шон П сказав:

For example with a red rectangle selected it will select all the objects inside 'Layer2'. With a yellow rectangle selected it will select everything inside 'Layer1'

Select rectangle that not belong to any Layers and you will see next

 

[Chris B]

Thanks anto. That is definitely a bug as far as I'm conerned!

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

Thanks anto. That is definitely a bug as far as I'm conerned!

It would make sense, to me, if it selected everything that was not on a Layer at all. But not if it also selects things that are on Layers.

[Intuos5]

I agree with Walt.

[Return]

Yes I agree.

[anto]

What is the meaning of the name "Select All on Current Layer"? Where is Current Layer?

[Return]

Layer with a capital L and artboards are for instance layers that can hold other layers/objects and make use of the current layer selection option.

[anto]

But your comment

26 minutes ago, Return said:

Yes I agree.

what means? If you select the rectangle I described above... What Layer is it on?

[Return]

its not on any Layer or artboard and here the global select all will apply.

So I agree with Walt here.

[anto]

Just now, Return said:

its not on any Layer or artboard and here the global select all will apply.

For me, it would make sense if Publisher automatically created a zero layer on which to place objects. Otherwise, it is confusing.

[TonyO]

I think the feel of the Select All function is a bit odd from a fundamental standpoint. There is very few instances on a multi-artboard project where you would want to select every object, on every artboard, and every object on the pasteboard all at the same time. It seems like the default CMD-A function is overkill. 

Selecting inside of a layer specifically feels too far drilled down, and Ash said in the original post, "Edit inside layers" button already toggles this.

I think the real way to fix the idea of "Select All" would be to make the CMD-A key command by default select all objects on the currently selected artboard you are currently working within. It seems like expected behavior since each artboard (unlike illustrator) is like it's own encapsulated layer set within a confined canvas.

This leaves out all objects on the pasteboard though. What if the pasteboard had the equivalent of an artboard on the layers pallet, so you would have a list like "artboard 1, artboard 2, Pasteboard" that way when you click out of an artboard, select all would grab all objects NOT in an artboard. On a non-artboard project, there could be a canvas and a pasteboard layer to start. 

Maybe I'm getting too far into the weeds now, but i feel like Select-All just feels like it's taking the idea literally when there are more nuanced ways of approaching it. 

[Intuos5]

Select all could be context sensitive, that when you edit objects on an artboard and/ or have the artboardor a nested layer  selected, it seoects all on the artboard. If you click off the artboard into the grey area and then select all, it selects all on the entire document. Still simple and straightforward for the user, yet also more flexible.

[lepr]

On 7/7/2023 at 10:48 AM, Chris B said:

Thanks anto. That is definitely a bug as far as I'm conerned!

That [anto's example] will be behaving as deliberately designed, I think.

'Select All on Current Layer' is performing a 'Select All', but restricted in scope, and 'Select All' sees through Layers to the content of the Layers. When the scope is the entire document, 'Select All on Current Layer' is identical to 'Select All'.

The name of the command is misleading since the scope can be the current Layer or Artboard/Spread or entire Document.

[fde101]

It kind of stands to reason that when there are no explicit layers in play then the page, artboard or document serves the role of the layer.

The situation in which it becomes most confusing is the one in which you have nested layers.

 

In this situation, there are three layers, and an argument could be made that all three of them are "current" since the red rectangle is selected and is on all three of those layers.  Thus, is the blue rectangle on the "current layer" or not?

[lepr]

19 hours ago, fde101 said:

It kind of stands to reason that when there are no explicit layers in play then the page, artboard or document serves the role of the layer.

The situation in which it becomes most confusing is the one in which you have nested layers.

 

In this situation, there are three layers, and an argument could be made that all three of them are "current" since the red rectangle is selected and is on all three of those layers.  Thus, is the blue rectangle on the "current layer" or not?

 

The red rectangle is selected, therefore Current Layer is the nearest ancestor Layer of the red rectangle, which is "Layer3". The blue rectangle is outside of "Layer3" and therefore outside of Current Layer.