Deselecting all objects

sisom · Post by **sisom** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 4:37 pm

Hi everybody, I've got about six objects in a picture, and three of them are large boxes, together they cover the entire space of the picture, so I can't click outside them to deselect them. I tried pressing the spacebar to unselect whichever object is currently selected, but it doesn't work. Is there a keyboard shortcut I can use to unselect all objects? (I need to unselect them because it's hard to see the results of changes I've made when the object has the selection box around it).
I do apologise if this is an obvious question, but I've searched the forum and Google and found nothing.
(I know that I can select the 'Base image' in Layer manager, to get rid of all the selections, but I really need a keyboard shortcut, as I'm constantly using it.)

EDIT: I've found it - it's the 'Enter' key. Doh! (I looked in the drop down menu for 'Object' and saw it...)

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:07 pm

Not so daft as you might think - when I saw your question I opened up PhotoImpact and was toying about with [Ctrl] [A] etc but you got there first.

To select all objects [Ctrl] [Shift] [A]
To unselect all objects [Enter]

I think someone in the past asked if there was a table of these keyboard shortcuts but I don't think anyone came up with a list.

sisom · Post by **sisom** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:11 pm

I'm glad I wasn't the only one for whom it wasn't obvious!

Just to add to the keyboard shortcuts, for anybody who hasn't found this out yet, if you have selected an object or objects, and want to use the Standard Selection Tool to take a 'screengrab' of part of it/them, hold down the ALT key and then click to start your selection, otherwise you'll find you select the object under the pointer and start dragging it around.
That was another problem I had which was endlessly frustrating until I found out how to do it.

I must say, the more I use PI12, the more impressed I am with it, it's astoundingly powerful, for the ¢G25 odd I paid for it.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:55 am

The easiest way is to use the Layer Manger panel. You can select any particular object there, create or dissolve groups, hide or un-hide objects etc.

sisom · Post by **sisom** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:52 am

Thanks for your reply, Heinz, I'll do some more experimenting with the Layer Manager, I hadn't really paid it much attention in the past, but I can see how powerful it can be. (Once I learn how to use it properly!)