Making the Bounding Box Disappear Just for a Second

Lots of my students complain about the Bounding Box getting in their way as they work with the Selection tool. I tell them to just turn it off under the View menu (View > Hide Bounding). However, the last Bounding Box question from a student was a lot different. It went something like this, “I love the Bounding Box and use it all the time to scale and rotate, but sometimes I wish there was a way to make it go away for a second so I can move a rectangle from a corner without transforming it. Is there a modifier key that I can press to make the Bounding Box temporarily disappear?”

I thought long and hard to find a simple answer until I realized that one of my earlier tips does the trick. If you choose the Direct Selection tool or the Group Selection tool before you start working the Selection tool, press the Command key (Control on PC) and you’ll temporarily switch to that other selection tool, making the Bounding Box disappear. When you release this one-key “modifier”, the Bounding Box will reappear.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.