Support

How to select with the Selection Brush

Making a selection

Choose the Selection Brush Selection Brush Tool Tool.

Draw a selection of any shape You want. Objects fully inside the selection shape will be selected. Objects just touched by the shape will be not.

Shift-click to add to selection / subtract from selection.

Press the square brackets [ ] to adjust the brush size.

Coloring objects

Deselect all objects. Choose a color using the Color palette or using the Eyedropper tool or in any other way.
The color will appear in the Fill Stroke Control at the bottom of Your Toolbar.

Press and hold the Option (Mac) or the Alt (Windows). Click and drag to draw a selection shape.
Objects fully inside the shape will be colored.

How to select with the Selection Box

Making a selection

Choose the Selection Box Selection Box Tool Tool.

Click and drag. Objects fully inside the selection marquee will be selected. Objects just touched by the marquee will be not.

Shift-click to add to selection / subtract from selection.

Press and hold the Option (Mac) or the Alt (Windows) to ignore the background.
(You don't want to move some background objects instead of making a selection).

Using a shortcut

The "A" key activates the Selection Box tool exactly as the Command (Control) key activates the Selection Tool: the tool is active while the key is pressed.

If You want to disable this shortcut, click here to see how to do it.

More details

Selection Box tool lets You move and scale objects in the same way as the Selection Tool does.

How to align

Select the objects You want to align (the triangle and the circle in the picture above).
Shift-click to add the object You'll use as a reference (the square in the picture above).

Press a key to align. All the shortcuts You can use for the alignment are in the picture below.
Press "1" to align to the left side of the square, press "0" to align to the center and so on.

If You want to align objects to the artboard, just select objects and use the Shift + a numeric key. See the picture below.
Press "Shift + 1" to align to the left edge of the artboard, press "Shift + 0" to align to the center etc.

If You are running Windows and You want to align objects with the Numeric keypad, make sure the NumLock is ON.

Alignment works even if the CoolSelection tools are not active. Select objects using any selection tool, then press a key to align them.

If these shortcuts interfere with other shortcuts You use, You can turn them off. Click here to see how.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How to register?

A: CoolSelection is a trialware. You can try it free for two weeks. Then You can buy it.
End-user License allows You to use up to two computers to run the CoolSelection.

Click "Illustrator / About CoolSelection..." (Mac) or "Help / About CoolSelection..." (Windows).
Enter Your License Key and click the "Register" button.

"E-mail and Password" window will appear.
Enter a valid E-mail and create a password. You'll need them to install the CoolSelection on Your second computer or to reinstall it.
Click the OK button. You'll see the "Registered successfully!" message.

If You registered the CoolSelection after the end of the trial period, You may need to restart the Illustrator.

More details

Please note that Your License Key is still valid if You replaced Your computer or reinstalled Your operating system or upgraded the Illustrator.
Just enter the License Key as described above, then the window will appear asking You to enter Your old password and to create a new one.

If You can't remember Your old password, click the "Send Password" button.
Password will be sent to the E-mail address You entered when registering.
Alternatively You can Use the myLicense Portal to retrieve Your password.

You may also need to re-enter Your License Key after a hardware upgrade or after a major update to Your operating system.

Number of activations is limited to 3 per month.

Q: How to disable or enable shortcuts used by the CoolSelection?

A: Click Illustrator / Preferences / CoolSelection… on Mac or Edit / Preferences / CoolSelection… on Windows.
Preferences window allows You to enable / disable the "A" key that activates the Selection Box tool or the numeric keys used for alignment.

Q: I can't find (or can't use) square brackets in my non-English keyboard layout.

A: There are square brackets in English keyboard layout. Please use the same buttons when Your keyboard layout isn't English.
For most keyboards this means: always use two buttons to the right from English letter P.

Q: I got a message telling that I can't copy to Plug-ins folder when trying to install the CoolSelection.

A: You have to be an administrator of Your computer to install a plugin. Otherwise contact Your system administrator and point him or her to the Install section.

Q: My copy of the CoolSelection stopped working after upgrading the Illustrator to version 2021.1 (25.1) for macOS.

A: Please update the CoolSelection. Download the current version from the site and replace the existing version.

Q: I can't find the Plug-ins folder (macOS).

A: Double-click the CoolSelection2025.dmg file to open it.
You'll see two shortcuts: CoolSelection and Plug-ins. Just drag the CoolSelection to Plug-ins.

If You want to copy the plugin manually:
"/Applications/Adobe Illustrator 2025/Plug-ins" is a path to the Illustrator 2025 plugins.
"/Applications/Adobe Illustrator 2024/Plug-ins" is a path to the Illustrator 2024 plugins.
"/Applications/Adobe Illustrator 2023/Plug-ins" is a path to the Illustrator 2023 plugins.

Q: I can't find the Plug-ins folder (Windows).

A: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 2025\Plug-ins" is a path to the Illustrator 2025 plugins.
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 2024\Plug-ins" is a path to the Illustrator 2024 plugins.
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 2023\Plug-ins" is a path to the Illustrator 2023 plugins.

Q: I got a message about a network error when trying to use the CoolSelection or when trying to register it.

A: CoolSelection uses an Internet connection to acquire a temporary (two week) license and to check if a permanent license is valid.

If You are running Windows, please check if You can access Internet sites using Your Edge browser or the Internet Explorer. If You can't, You need to adjust Your network configuration even if other browsers are working.

Are You behind a proxy or a firewall?
If You are using a corporate network, You may need a help from Your system administrator to check if CoolSelection is blocked from the Internet connection.

Address of the license management server is below. It will be needed to configure a proxy or a firewall:
Server IP address: reg1.softworkz.com, reg2.softworkz.com, reg3.softworkz.com
Port: 80 (Standard HTTP)
Domain: softworkz.com