Yeah Illustrator needs work here. InDesign allows you to do just this – Command (Apple key) click the area you want to find something, and successive clicks select the objects below the mouse pointer ONLY. Illustrator’s “object below” method is terrible and I never use it.
I don’t believe InDesign allows you to actually move the hidden object you select with this method, I will have to try it and find out.
For AI, what I usually have to do is switch to outline view and grab the wireframe version of the object(s) and do my thing. Functional, yes. Productive, not really. This method is much better.
Another workaround is to do a Lock or Hide on the top object (Command-2 & Command-3) and then click, but again this is a clunky workaround to something more elegant as in FreeHand.
I think with Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia in mid-stream of CS3 development, not many (if any at all) features were implemented and that CS4 – and our unified feature request brigade – will hopefully bring more of these features to AI. The only thing I noticed that seemed to be inspired by Flash was the new AI CS3 ‘Isolation Mode’ for editing grouped objects.
I’m not trying to defend AI here, just giving some tips that might make it easier to work with it. I learned AI before I got to try FH. My father swears by it so I gave it a try once but the one thing that turned me off was the way the layer palette worked… Now I’m thinking working in AI might be more layer based than FH.
For the selection problem you mention in here, I would either switch to outline (command+y) and drag to select or lock top layer (command+2 – option+command+2 to unlock) and click through…
The FH might be more productive… but, you can certainly make your AI life a little easier by using those shortcuts and keeping the layer palette open.
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Yeah Illustrator needs work here. InDesign allows you to do just this – Command (Apple key) click the area you want to find something, and successive clicks select the objects below the mouse pointer ONLY. Illustrator’s “object below” method is terrible and I never use it.
I don’t believe InDesign allows you to actually move the hidden object you select with this method, I will have to try it and find out.
For AI, what I usually have to do is switch to outline view and grab the wireframe version of the object(s) and do my thing. Functional, yes. Productive, not really. This method is much better.
Another workaround is to do a Lock or Hide on the top object (Command-2 & Command-3) and then click, but again this is a clunky workaround to something more elegant as in FreeHand.
I think with Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia in mid-stream of CS3 development, not many (if any at all) features were implemented and that CS4 – and our unified feature request brigade – will hopefully bring more of these features to AI. The only thing I noticed that seemed to be inspired by Flash was the new AI CS3 ‘Isolation Mode’ for editing grouped objects.
I’m not trying to defend AI here, just giving some tips that might make it easier to work with it. I learned AI before I got to try FH. My father swears by it so I gave it a try once but the one thing that turned me off was the way the layer palette worked… Now I’m thinking working in AI might be more layer based than FH.
For the selection problem you mention in here, I would either switch to outline (command+y) and drag to select or lock top layer (command+2 – option+command+2 to unlock) and click through…
The FH might be more productive… but, you can certainly make your AI life a little easier by using those shortcuts and keeping the layer palette open.
Hope that helps :)
@Yann: Thanks for the drag to select tip for the Direct tool, that really helps.
My fingers seem glued to the Ctrl-Z combo.