Selecting and organizing objects

There are several ways to select objects and it is possible to select more than one object at a time. It is also possible to group objects. Although an object may be part of a group, you will be still able to select a single object out of a group of multiple objects.

The selection tools are on the top of the tools panel. The general tool is the solid black arrow pointer. When you move the pointer over an object the outline changes color and appears red with little squares on the corner points of the object. By clicking on the object while the red border shows, the object is selected. The outline changes to light blue, which indicates that the object is selected.

unselected, pointer over the object

selected by clicking

When you create objects, the new objects will be stacked in front of older objects. It can happen that objects disappear because they are covered by another object. To select those objects without interfering with the stacking order, use the select behind tool .

The arrow pointer with the white fill acts the same way the general selection pointer works. The only difference is that it allows you to sub-select objects within a group of objects. It is important to know that vector objects consists of vertices which can also be individually selected with the subselection tool.

Groups of objects are displayed with solid corner points only. The shapes and their outline are not highlighted. When you sub-select from a group, Fireworks indicates the sub-selection by displaying hollow corner points:

It is also possible to select more than one object at a time. There are several ways to do this. If the objects you want to group are in the same area, you can just select them by drawing a selection box. You do not have to draw the box over the entire object. It suffices to have just one corner of the object in the box selected.

Another possibility is to add objects one by one. This is helpful when other objects that you don't want to be part of the selection are in the same area. Hold the SHIFT key as you select the objects and a multiple selection is made. To remove an object, click it again and it will be deselected.

To group objects together, select all the desired objects. Choose from the menu bar [Modify->Group] or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+G (Windows) or Command+G (Macintosh). The modify toolbar also contains icons to group and ungroup objects.

Moving objects

Any selected object can be moved just by dragging it with the arrow pointer. The object will retain all its properties.

Grouped objects are moved as a group and retain the relative position to each other when the whole group is moved. If you want to move an object within a group and change its relative position to the other grouped objects select it with the sub-selection pointer. It then can be moved like a single object but will still remain part of the group.

Transforming objects

Transforming objects means sizing, rotating, skewing, and distorting. Choose one of the transform tools from the tools panel:

Sizing and rotating are handled by the first transform tool. To transform an object you need to select it first with the arrow pointer. Next select the appropriate tool. The selected object will show transform handles:

The pointer will take different shapes to indicate the type of transformation:

scaling, resizing	rotating
skewing	distorting

You have to bring the pointer close in order to transform a handle. By dragging the pointer you can apply the transformation.

If you want to make numeric transformations i.e., entering exact values, select [Modify->Transform->Numeric Transform] from the menu bar. The size of an object can also be set through the info panel when the object is selected.