i can only select from Layers

Is something not working like it should? Let us know.
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2020-11-20 20:58:36

My practice for selecting objects & moving them is to use the Arrange tool. I can no longer select anything this way from my work; I have select things in Layers. This is true for shapes, text, and anything else. Double-clicking doesn't work.

Additionally, if I am using the text tool & click on an existing text object, a new one is created instead of editing the existing.

Neither of these used to happen; I used to be able to select from the illustration with the Arrange tool. This is massively inefficient, to put it mildly.

And as far as I can recall, it began with Big Sur beta but continues with the public release & P.Pro 2.
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2020-11-21 16:40:54

My apologies if you've already checked this but the last item in Arrange menu is a checkbox that allows you to turn automatic selection on and off, and even if you'd like it to select layers or groups.

Image

The checkbox I mean is the checked 'Auto select'. Maybe an update switched it off.

That should solve the Text tool issue too, as Arrange tool becomes Text tool when automatic selection is on.
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2020-11-21 17:35:32

holy wow. when did they make that a choice? i guess i could see not wanting to auto-select when you are working on a layer (i've done that a lot, too) but this is a definite change in PPro behavior. i totally missed it.

i see you can toggle this from the context menu (right-click), which is nice. it would also be nice to have a way to, for example, option-ctrl-click & pick an object with auto-select off.

mystery solved. thank you!!
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2020-11-21 17:46:57

You're welcome!

It's been there since I started using it (1.5?, 1.6?), as far as I remember.

Curiously, I had once the opposite problem, as I prefer to have it unchecked: I use Pixelmator for drawing and don't want to have to be precise when clicking on a bunch of recently done strokes to move them around a bit with Arrange tool.
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2020-11-21 22:13:39

hm. it's possible Pxl changed the default. perhaps i unchecked it. i certainly never noticed it before. but hey. thanks for the help.
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2020-11-26 14:22:33

The most likely explanation is you accidentally two-finger clicked (or Control-clicked) the canvas and dragged a little before releasing your trackpad/mouse. The Auto Select option is the first one in that shortcut menu and it would've appeared only briefly, so it would've been super easy to miss.

Glad to hear you managed to get some timely help, though! I was a little bit swamped with all the 2.0 stuff. :pray: