Just like in other familiar applications, the selection of individual or multiple objects can be performed using the activated Selection Tool (V) in the following ways:

• Selecting an object – click on the desired object.
• Selecting underlying objects – to select objects that are partially or completely hidden behind other objects, hold down the key Cmd (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows) and click through the object stack. Each additional click selects the next object in the object stack.
• Expand/Reduce selection – hold down the key Shift and click to the next object. This adds the object to the current selection. Clicking again on an already selected object while holding the key Shift will remove the object from the selection.
• Selecting multiple objects – click and drag a selection frame around one or more objects while holding down the mouse button. Which objects are selected depends on the selection mode defined in the Preferences of the PDF Editor. The following options are available:
  • All fully or partially captured objects of the selection frame – all objects that are either completely or partially within the selection frame will be selected.
  • Only fully captured objects of the selection frame – only objects that lie entirely within the selection frame will be selected.

Figure 1: The footer of the PDF Editor showing the currently active selection mode

In addition to mouse-based controls, several selection functions are available via the keyboard:

• Select the next/previous object in the object hierarchy – if an object is already selected, pressing the key Tab selects the next object in the PDF hierarchy. If no object is selected yet, the first object in the hierarchy will be selected. Repeatedly pressing the key Tab moves the selection to the next object in the PDF hierarchy. To select the previous object in the PDF hierarchy, press the keys Shift and Tab simultaneously.
• Select all objects – pressing the keyboard shortcuts Cmd + A (macOS) or Ctrl + A (Windows) selects all objects on the current page. Note that only visible objects will be selected. This is useful for selecting the following types of objects quickly:
  • Select all text, vector, or image objects – in the tab View > Analyze, go to the settings section Page Objects and enable the desired object types – texts, vectors, or images. Then press the keyboard shortcut Cmd + A (macOS) or Ctrl + A (Windows) to select all visible objects of those types on the current page.
  • Select all objects of a specific color space – in the tab View > Analyze, navigate to the the settings section Color Spaces and select the desired Color Space. Then press the keyboard shortcut Cmd + A (macOS) or Ctrl + A (Windows) to select all visible objects using that color space on the current page.
  • Select all objects of a specific spot color – in the tab View > Analyze, navigate to the settings section Spot Colors and select the desired Spot Color. Then press the keyboard shortcut Cmd + A (macOS) or Ctrl + A (Windows) to select all visible objects using that Spot Color on the current page.
• Deselect objects – to clear the current selection, press the key combination Cmd + Shift + A (macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + A (Windows).    

The dialog Select Objects allows you to select multiple objects that share the same or similar parameters at the same time. Open the dialog via the menu Edit > Select Objects... or by pressing the keyboard shortcut Cmd + E (macOS) or Ctrl + E (Windows).

To select objects with matching or similar parameters, proceed as follows:

1. Select the reference object on the current page by simply clicking it with the Selection Tool (V).
2. Press the keyboard shortcut Cmd + E (macOS) or Ctrl + E (Windows) to open the dialog Select Objects.
3. Enable the parameters – such as Font Family [2], Font Size [3], Color Parameters [4], etc. – that must match when searching for and selecting objects.
4. Click the button Set from first selected Object [10] to apply the values from the selected object to the dialog.
5. Click OK to select all objects on the page with the same parameters. A dialog will then display the number of selected objects.

Figure 2: The dialog Select Objects, which allows you to select all objects that match the specified parameters

The following parameters can be used in the dialog Select Objects to search for objects with the same name or similar objects:

• Font Family [2] – selects all objects assigned to the specific Font Family that you have selected. The dropdown menu only displays Font Families that are used on the current page of the PDF.
• Font Size [3] – selects text objects within a defined size range. Values must be specified in pt.
• Color Parameters [4] – selects objects based on a specific color definition. All color spaces used on the current page are available in the dropdown menu. The following color spaces may be encountered:
  • CMYK/RGB/Indexed/Lab/Grayscale/Bitmap/Registration Mark/Spot Color/ICC Based CMYK/DeviceN/DeviceN (CMYK only) – depending on the selected color space, corresponding values can be entered below. By setting a Tolerance [8], objects within a defined color range can also be identified.
  • Spot Colors – if Spot Color is selected from the dropdown menu, you can choose the desired Spot Color name directly below.  
• Select overprinting objects [5] – selects objects with the overprint status set to "Overprint". When this option is active, the following overprint types are considered:
  • Objects with overprinting strokes
  • Objects with overprinting fills
  • Objects with both overprinting fill and stroke.
• Stroke Width [6] – enables the selection of strokes with a defined width. By specifying a Tolerance [9], strokes within a defined range of widths can be identified.
• Extend Selection [7] – adds the results of the current search to an existing selection of objects.

The following functions are available for Aligning Objects:

• Align Left [12] [28] – aligns all selected objects to the left edge of the reference object. You can also use the shortcut Cmd + Shift + Left Arrow (macOS)  Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow  (Windows).
• Align Right [13] [27] – aligns all selected objects to the right edge of the reference object. Alternatively, you can also use the shortcut Cmd + Shift + Right Arrow (macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow (Windows).
• Align Top [14] [26] – aligns all selected objects to the top edge of the reference object. You can also use the shortcut combination Cmd + Shift + Up Arrow (macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow (Windows).
• Align Bottom [15] [31]– aligns all selected objects to the bottom edge of the reference object. You can also use the shortcut Cmd + Shift + Down Arrow (macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow (Windows).
• Align horizontally centered [16] [32] – aligns all selected objects along the horizontal center axis of the reference object.
• Align vertically centered [17] [33] – aligns all selected objects along the vertical center axis of the reference object.  

The following functions are available for Distributing Objects:

• Distribute Horizontally [18] [29] – evenly distributes all selected objects horizontally between the first and the last object.
• Distribute Vertically [19] [30] – evenly distributes all selected objects vertically between the topmost and bottommost object.

The following functions are available for Adjusting Objects:

• Adjust Width [20] [35] – adjusts the width of all selected objects to match the width of the reference object.
• Adjust Height [21] [34] – adjusts the height of all selected objects to match the height of the reference object.

The following functions are available for Arranging Objects:

• Move to Front [22] [36] – moves the selected objects to the top position in the object stack.
• Move Forward [23] [37] – moves the selected objects one step forward in the object stack. You can also use the shortcut Cmd + Shift + + (macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + + (Windows).
• Move Backward [24] [38] – moves the selected objects one step backward in the object stack. You can also use the shortcut Cmd + Shift + - (macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + - (Windows).
• Move to Back [25] [39] – moves the selected objects to the bottom position in the object stack.