Selecting one element is easy: you click it. The interesting part is grabbing several at once so you can move, copy, or restyle a whole region of the diagram in a single action. livediagram offers two complementary ways to do this, and they work together.
The marquee
The marquee is a selection rectangle you drag across the canvas. Start the drag on an empty patch of background, pull a box around the elements you want, and release: everything the rectangle catches becomes selected together. It is the fastest way to scoop up a cluster of shapes, a row of cards, or an entire section of a board.
Because the marquee starts on empty canvas, it never conflicts with dragging an element. Press directly on a shape and you move that shape; press on the background and you draw a marquee instead.
Building a selection by hand
When the elements you want are not neatly boxed together, build the selection one at a time. Click the first element, then add more to the selection without dropping what you already have. You can keep extending the selection across the canvas, picking out exactly the elements you need and leaving their neighbours untouched. Clicking an element that is already selected removes it again, so you can fine-tune the set as you go.
Acting on a selection
However you gathered it, a multi-selection behaves as one. Drag any part of it and the whole set moves together, keeping its relative spacing. You can copy and paste the selection, delete it, drop it into a group, or open the right-click menu to restyle the lot at once. The format painter is happy to paint a look across an entire multi-selection too.
Clicking an empty patch of canvas clears the current selection, so you always have a quick way to start fresh before drawing a new marquee.
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