Specify direction line and direction point appearance

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Show or hide direction lines for selected anchor points
Set direction point and direction line display preferences

When working with anchor points and paths, you may sometimes need to see direction lines (handles), while at other times they may get in the way. You can show or hide direction lines for multiple selected anchor points. For a single anchor point, the lines always appear.

You can choose to show or hide direction lines on a per-selection basis, or you can set a preference for direction line display.

For a video on setting direction lines and points, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0037.

Show or hide direction lines for selected anchor points

Use the Direct Selection tool to select the desired anchor points.
In the Control panel, click Show Handles For Multiple Selected Anchor Points > or Hide Handles For Multiple Selected Anchor Points .

Note: You can also set a preference to always show or always hide handles when multiple anchor points are selected.

Set direction point and direction line display preferences

Choose Edit > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display (Mac OS).
In the Anchor Point And Handle Display area, specify any of the following:
Handles
Specifies the display of handle end points (direction points):
- Displays direction points as small solid circles.
- Displays direction points as large solid circles.
- Displays direction points as open crosses.
Show Handles When Multiple Anchors Are Selected

Displays direction lines on all selected anchor points when you use the Direct Selection tool or Group Selection tool to select an object. If you don’t select this option, direction lines are displayed for an anchor point if it is the only anchor point selected on that path, or if the Bezier segment for the direction line is selected and the anchor point from which the direction line extends is not selected.