Deselect All command is not active in Artboard mode and the hotkey select all instead
When you pick the Artboard Tool, you enter a special 'artboard mode', and it modifies the behavior of standard 'object mode' commands.
For example, pressing Cmd/Ctrl + A (Select All) will select all artboards instead of objects.
But for some reason pressing Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + A (Deselect All) does not deselect all artboards, but selects them all instead.
And if I try to call it from the menu, it will deselect objects instead of artboards (if I have any object selected) or just be inactive (if I have no object selected).
This is hardly consistent and makes deselecting artboards a problem.
One can say you can deselect them by clicking empty canvas... but the problem is that accidentally clicking an object creates a new object-size artboard instead, and not seeing empty canvas in a view is a common thing, and there is just no space you can click to deselect.
...and Ai does not even change a cursor when a click is going to create a new object-size artboard! You can vote for changing it here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/47070346
AdminEgor Chistyakov
(Admin, Adobe Illustrator)
shared this idea
The hotkey (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+A by default) now works in the Artboard mode to deselect all artboards, in the latest Beta 30.4.0.80. Please check!
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While in the Artboard mode, the Select > All top menu command selects objects, not artboards. So it means only the hotkeys become modal, while the menu commands still refer to object selection only. It makes sense... but then again, selecting objects while working with artboards seems odd... Perhaps the names of these two commands should become Select > All Artboards and Deselect Artboards, to match the modal hotkeys? ...at the same time, the Select > All on Active Artboard stays valid... this definitely requires more thinking.
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The hotkey (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+A by default) now works in the Artboard mode to deselect all artboards, however the menu command still stays inactive.
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A related problem:
Select > All menu command also selects all artwork instead of all artboards only
http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/41482618 -
Griff
commented
Cmd-Shift-A usually deselects all. But while the Artboard tool is selected, the same shortcut selects all… the same as pressing Cmd-A.