How to click and drag select objects?

Question

I don't have any experience with Illustrator and am trying to modify a file. There are a bunch of text objects (something like two dozen) and I simply want to select all of them without shift-clicking every single one. However, when I choose the selection tool and then click and drag to try to select the object, the background gets selected and starts moving with the mouse.

If I click outside of the layers and drag into them then I can select stuff, but it gets borders on the edges that I don't want to select.

Answer 1

Without going into great detail about locking or hiding objects, or using the Layers Panel, the quickest method may be to choose Select > Object > Text Objects from the menu.

This will select all text objects. And this assumes your text is live text, not outlines.

You can then Shift-click to remove pieces from the selection if needed.

There may be other methods which work equally well, but a sample of the artwork would need to be shown or at least explained in detail to provide simple solutions such as this.