🚀 go-pugleaf

> Adobe, please catch up with Quark and Freehand and add this option to 
> Illustrator.

This is one of those tiny little features you have to have access to and
get accustomed to, in order to appreciate the disproportionately HUGE
productivity advantage it is.

Shez is right. Even having to select "Next Item Above" or "Next Item
Below" from the contextual menu is a time-wasting, tedious royal pain
compared to the instant results of simply pressing Control without
skipping a beat to select the next object below *or add it to the
object(s) already selected*. Having to go to a layer palette is even worse.

It's one of those features which quickly becomes second nature and
invaluable. You do it almost without even thinking about it. Having to
simply select something below doesn't even cause you to break stride.

Even the previous functionality in AI 9 (Command-Bracket Keys) was
cumbersome because of the two keys and their locations on the keyboard.
But in AI 10, even that was wrecked because those now select the
next/previous object *in the document*; not just where you are clicking.

Illustrator sorely needs this improvement. We need ONE KEY which we can
press to simply cycle through the objects under the cursor with each
click. (Adding Shift while doing this needs to add the next item to the selection.)

The problem is, I don't know which key that would be. Control does it in
FH, which is very handy because it's right next to shift, so you easily
can add/remove stacked items from the selection without being a
contortionist. But Control in AI is used for the contextual menu, which
is kind of "standard" for programs with contextual menus. Option does
the duplicate thing, so that's out. Z would be convenient to Shift and
would make sense in that you are selecting through in the "Z" direction.
But that's used for Zoom, so users would probably protest.

In Canvas, pressing Tab while clicking does the same thing Control does
in FH. But in AI, Tab hides all the palettes. Maybe that could be
changed to CommandTab or something.

Is there any reason simply pressing Command when clicking couldn't be
used for this?

> Ever tried to select a solid shape close to, and beneath a line of text, 
> only to be constantly selecting the text?

I recently had the preference for "Type Area Select" pointed out to me,
so that at least helps ease the pain of text always being in the way.
But it doesn't change the fact that a simple, 1-key command for cycling
through objects under the cursor is needed.

JET