Select Tool

The Select tool is the default pointer. Use it to pick atoms, bonds, arrows, and annotations, move them around the canvas, and reach per-object editing handles. Press V or click the arrow button in the toolbar to activate it.

Selecting objects

Click any object to select it. Selecting an object replaces the current selection and draws a bounding box with handles around it. The handles you see depend on the object: resize and rotate handles on shapes and text, endpoint and curvature handles on arrows. Those per-object handles are covered on each feature’s page.

Shift+click adds an unselected object to the selection, or removes one that is already selected.
Marquee select: press on empty canvas and drag a rectangle. Objects fully enclosed by the rectangle are selected; a bond is included only when both of its atoms are inside. Hold Shift while dragging the marquee to add to the existing selection instead of replacing it.
Ctrl+A selects everything on the canvas.
Escape clears the selection.

Selecting a member of a group expands the selection to the whole group. Selecting an object also opens its properties panel on the right side.

Moving objects

Drag a selected object to move it. With multiple objects selected, press inside the selection bounding box and drag; the whole selection moves as one block. Pressing outside the box starts a new marquee instead.

While dragging, the snap pipeline runs automatically:

Smart guides align the dragged object to edges, centers, and spacing of nearby objects, and match bond lengths. They are on by default; toggle them with Ctrl+; or View > Smart Guides.
Free movement: hold Alt while dragging to suppress all snapping.
Merge on drop: holding Ctrl also suppresses snapping, and in addition arms fragment merging: drop the dragged atom onto another atom to fuse the two structures at that atom. A snap indicator appears near the target while a merge is armed.
Grid snap: when the grid is enabled with snapping on, the selection snaps to grid intersections instead of smart guides. See the grid options in the View menu. Holding G during a drag temporarily inverts grid snapping: on if it is off, off if it is on.

Two drag behaviors are specific to chemistry:

Dragging an atom that has exactly one bond rotates it around its neighbor at fixed bond length rather than translating it freely. Rotation snaps to 15 degree steps (Alt rotates freely), and any atoms beyond the dragged one swing along as a unit. Hold Shift to change the bond length while you rotate (the angle still snaps).
Shift+drag on a selected object drags out a clone, leaving the original in place.

Some drags show a live readout near the cursor: rotating an object displays the current angle in degrees, and dragging an anchored arrow endpoint displays a position and gap readout.

For precise positioning, use the arrow keys to nudge the selection 1 px per press, or 10 px with Shift held.

Double-click shortcuts

Double-clicking routes to the most useful editor for the target: an atom opens its label editor, a text or textbox annotation opens the text editor, an arrow’s text zone opens inline arrow-text editing, and a selected image enters crop mode. See Copy & Paste for clipboard behavior with images, and SVG & Plotly Imports for the full crop mode treatment.

Right-clicking selects the object under the cursor and opens a context menu with actions relevant to that object type, plus clipboard operations. It is the fastest route to object-specific commands without hunting through panels.

Deleting

Press Delete or Backspace to remove everything in the selection as a single undoable operation. Atoms with a visible element label and attached bonds take two presses: the first hides the label, the second deletes the atom.

Ctrl+D duplicates the selection in place.

What this tool does not do

Alignment, distribution, flipping, and layer ordering are batch operations on a selection, not Select tool gestures. See Arrange for those.