Selecting with Track View

Track View provides sophisticated methods to edit your animation tracks. In addition, its Hierarchy list displays all objects in the scene by name and hierarchy. Using Track View, you can select any object in the scene by clicking its object icon in the Hierarchy list.

Procedures

You can use Track View selection functionality in both the Curve Editor Introduction and the Dope Sheet Introduction. This procedure illustrates usage of the Curve Editor; the same methods work in the Dope Sheet.

To open Track View and display and select objects:

On the main toolbar, click Curve Editor (Open).
Click any cube icon in the list to select the named object.

You can make the following kinds of selections:

Select several adjacent objects in the list. Click the first object, hold down Shift, and click another object elsewhere in the list.
Modify the selection by pressing Ctrl while clicking. Ctrl lets you toggle individual items on and off without deselecting others in the list.
Select an object and all its descendants. Press and hold Alt, right-click the object's cube icon (keep the right mouse button held down), and choose Select Children from the menu.

You can open a Track View window for the sole purpose of selecting objects by name. Shrink the window until only a portion of the Hierarchy appears, and then move the window to a convenient area on your screen.