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. The click replaces the current selection and draws a bounding box with handles around the object. Which handles appear depends on the object: shapes and text get resize and rotate handles, arrows get endpoint and curvature handles. Canvas Handles lists them all.

To build a larger selection:

Shift+click an unselected object to add it, or a selected one to remove it.
Press on empty canvas and drag a rectangle (a marquee). Objects fully inside the rectangle are selected; a bond counts only when both of its atoms are inside. Hold Shift while dragging to add to the existing selection.
Double-click an atom or bond to select its whole molecule; Shift+double-click adds another molecule. See Double-click shortcuts.
Ctrl+A selects everything on the canvas, and 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 several objects selected, press inside the selection’s bounding box and drag; the whole selection moves as one block. Pressing outside the box starts a new marquee.

Snapping runs automatically while you drag, and modifier keys change it:

While dragging	Effect
(no key)	Smart guides line the dragged object up with the edges, centers, text lines, and spacing of nearby objects on screen and match bond lengths. A group counts as one block. Toggle them with `Ctrl+;` or View > Smart Guides. See Smart Guides.
`Alt`	Suppresses all snapping. A dragged text box or shape also pulls free of the arrows drawn from it: they stay where they are and let go of it on release.
`Ctrl`	Suppresses snapping. Arrows attached to a dragged text box or shape stay attached and follow it. For atoms, it also arms merging: drop the dragged atom onto another atom to fuse the structures there.
`G` (held)	Inverts grid snapping for this drag: on if it is off, off if it is on.

When the grid is on with snapping enabled, the selection snaps to grid intersections instead of smart guides. See Grid Settings.

An Alt pull-free and its move are one undo step. If you release Alt before the mouse button, the arrows follow again and stay attached.

A Ctrl drop onto an atom of a different molecule is a fuse. A ghost previews where the dragged fragment will seat, and a label near the target reads “Fuse · F: flip · Alt: keep as drawn” (or “Ring fusion · F: flip” when two ring edges line up). Press F during the drag to flip which way the fragment folds, or hold Alt to fuse without rotating it.

If the selection is only part of a molecule, holding Ctrl as you start the drag cuts that part free from the rest, the same result as Detach Selection (see Arrange).

Two drag behaviors are specific to chemistry. Dragging an atom that has exactly one bond swings it around its neighbor at a fixed bond length. The angle snaps to 15° steps (Alt rotates freely), any atoms beyond the dragged one swing along with it, and holding Shift lets the bond length change while the angle still snaps. Shift+drag on a selected object drags out a copy and leaves the original in place.

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

For fine positioning, the arrow keys nudge the selection 1 px per press, or 10 px with Shift. A nudge never snaps; with smart guides on, the guides the selection now lines up with show for a moment after each press. The canvas also has a keyboard cursor for moving between atoms and editing them without the mouse; see Keyboard shortcuts.

Moving without dragging

Turn on View > Single-Pointer Editing to move, rotate, or resize without holding the mouse button down. With it on, the right-click menu adds Move Selection (when atoms are selected), Rotate Selection, and Resize Selection. Pick one, click a reference point, move the pointer to see a preview, then click again to commit. Esc or the on-screen Cancel move button cancels. For shapes, the Properties panel also has X, Y, and Rotation fields.

Double-click shortcuts

A double-click does something different for each kind of target. This table is the complete list; other pages link here.

Double-click	Result
An unselected atom, or any bond (Select tool)	Selects the whole connected molecule.
An atom or bond with `Shift` held (Select tool)	Adds that molecule to the selection, or removes it if it is already fully selected. Other selected items, such as lone pairs and annotations, stay selected.
An atom that is already selected (Select tool)	Opens the atom’s label editor.
An atom with the Bond tool or another drawing tool	Opens the label editor. With the Lone Pair, Radical, or Charge tool active, a double-click does nothing, so rapid clicks keep placing decorations.
A substituent on a Newman, Haworth, or chair projection	Opens that substituent’s label editor (ring atoms of a Haworth or chair excluded).
An object inside a group (Select tool)	Enters the group and selects only that object.
A text annotation or text box	Opens the text editor.
A LaTeX annotation	Opens the LaTeX editor with the equation loaded. See LaTeX Annotations.
A Plotly chart	Reopens the chart dialog with its JSON. See Images, SVG and Charts.
A selected raster image	Enters crop mode.
A reaction or retrosynthesis arrow	Opens inline editing for the text zone under the pointer (the zone above the arrow if none is hit). See Reaction arrows.
A text box resize handle, with `Ctrl` held	Shrinks the box to fit its text. A plain double-click on a handle opens the text editor instead.
A gold diamond on a selected shape or orbital	Resets that adjustment to its default.
A selected curved arrow	Adds an anchor or waypoint at the click point. See Curved arrows.
The header strip of an animation state frame	Enters animation mode with that state active. See Animation states.

The Pan tool ignores double-clicks.

Right-clicking selects the object under the cursor and opens a context menu with actions for that object type, plus clipboard commands. With atoms selected it also offers Flip Selection, Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical, and, for part of a molecule, Detach Selection; Arrange describes them. The full list is in Right-click menus.

Deleting and duplicating

Press Delete or Backspace to remove everything in the selection as one undoable step. When the selection holds only atoms (for example, one clicked atom), a bonded carbon whose “C” label is showing takes two presses: the first hides the label, the second deletes the atom. Other atoms delete on the first press.

Ctrl+D duplicates the selection, placing the copy 20 px down and to the right.

Alignment, distribution, rotation, flipping, and layer order are commands that act on a selection; they live on the Arrange page. For click-to-delete, use the Eraser.