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Selecting text and objects

The following section is a review of some basic selection techniques used to format text.

To select and deselect text objects:

Select text objects the same way you select other objects in Canvas.

To select a single object: Use a Selection tool to click the text object or drag a selection rectangle around the object.
To select multiple objects: Shift-click text objects with a Selection tool. You can also drag a selection rectangle around all the objects you want to select.
To deselect one object: Press Shift and click the object. Other objects remain selected.
To deselect all objects: Press Esc or click an area of the screen where there are no objects.

To select all text objects:

Select the Text tool from the Toolbox.
Choose Edit | Select All.
- Illustration: This procedure selects all text objects on the current layer.
- Publication: This procedure selects all text objects on the current page or current two-page spread.
- Animation: This procedure selects all text objects on the current layer of the current frame.
- Presentation: This procedure selects all text objects on the current layer of the current slide.

To select text within a text object:

Before you can select specific characters, words, lines, or paragraphs, the text object must be in edit mode.

To place an object in edit mode, use one of these methods:
- With a Selection tool, double-click the text object. The pointer becomes an I-beam and an insertion point appears in the text.
- Select the Text tool. The pointer becomes an I-beam. Click the I-beam within the text. An insertion point appears.
- For bound text only, click the Path Text tool. The Path Text tool is in the Text tools palette (see Tool palettes).
Use one of the following methods to highlight the text you want to select.

To	Do this
Select a continuous block of text	Drag the I-beam over text.
Select all text between the insertion point and another location	Press the Shift key and click where you want the selection to end.
Deselect text between the insertion point and another location within the selection	Press the Shift key and click within the highlighted text.
Select a word	Double-click the word with the I-beam pointer.
Select a line of text	Triple-click the line with the I-beam pointer.
Select all text in the text object	Choose Edit \| Select All.
Deselect all highlighted text	Click anywhere in the text object or layout. Clicking outside the selected text object creates another text object at that location. Choosing another tool in the Toolbox ends text edit mode.

Working with linked text objects

When you link text objects so text flows from one column to another, you can select all of the text in the flow. This lets you apply formatting changes and text styles to all the text at once, even if the columns are on separate pages or slides.

For information on linking text objects, see Flowing text from column to column.

To select all text in a flow:

Select the Text tool and click one of the linked text objects to place the text object in edit mode and set the insertion point in the text. You can also double-click a text object with the Selection tool to enter edit mode.
Choose Edit | Select All. Canvas highlights all the text in the linked text objects.
Click outside any text object or press Esc to deselect the text.

When text is highlighted, anything you type replaces the highlighted text. If you select a long text flow across several columns, and then type a single letter or press the Spacebar, all the highlighted text is erased. If this happens, choose Edit | Undo or Window | Palettes | Undos.

To apply type formatting to a text flow:

Once you select the text in a flow, you can apply formatting changes using the Properties bar, Type palette, or Text menu commands. Of course, changes that you make to selected text on other pages or slides will not be shown until you switch to the other pages or slides.