Lock Unlock Tool
Lock Unlock is an Astute Graphics tool for Adobe Illustrator that allows you to lock or unlock individual objects on the artboard by simply clicking on them. Members of groups may be treated separately or as one. Lock Unlock is part of the SubScribe plugin.
Tool Location and Cursor Appearance
The Lock Unlock tool appears in Illustrator’s main toolbar (which must be in Advanced mode: View > Toolbars > Advanced) stacked under the Connect tool and the Straighten tool in the SubScribe plugin. As with other stacked tools, click and hold on the top tool icon to display the tools stacked under it.
Lock Unlock Tool Location
The Lock Unlock tool uses several cursors:
Lock Unlock Tool Cursors
Lock Unlock Tool Operations
Clicking on an art object with the Lock Unlock tool will lock it (if it is unlocked) or unlock it (if it is locked). The cursor will change to reflect the operation which will be performed by clicking. To help distinguish locked from unlocked items, the tool highlights all locked objects in red. When the cursor is passed over them, objects which will be affected by the tool will be additionally highlighted in blue.
Lock Unlock Tool Highlighting
Normally, the Lock Unlock tool will affect only one grouping level at a time. For example, suppose there is a group of two rectangles, and, using the Layers panel, one of the rectangles is locked. Suppose then that the group itself is locked, and then the layer containing the group is locked. When the Lock Unlock cursor is hovered over either of the rectangles, both will be highlighted in blue, indicating that the unlock operation will affect both of them (because they belong to the same locked layer). After clicking, the layer will have been unlocked, but not the group; the rectangles still appear highlighted in red. It would take a second click to unlock the group, and a third click to unlock the locked rectangle.
Lock Unlock Tool Normal Mode
However, if the Option/Alt key is held down when clicking, then all children of the top-most locked group or layer will also be unlocked. The cursor will appear with a small arrow when unlocking all children.
Lock Unlock All the Children
When locking with Option/Alt pressed, it is the top-most parent group that is locked (if the object is grouped). However, this locking does not extend up to layers and sublayers.
Lock Unlock Preferences
Doubleclicking the Lock Unlock tool in the toolbox (or pressing the Enter key when the tool is selected) will bring up its preferences dialog:
Lock Unlock Preferences Dialog
1. Snap Tolerance
The tolerance for the cursor when snapping to artwork, in pixels.
2. Ignore Template Layers
When enabled, Template layers and any art objects contained within them will be ignored by the tool.
3. Informational area
Shows a brief description of each preference control when the cursor is being hovered over it.