How to Use Select More and Less in Blender

The Select More and Select Less commands in Blender allow you to quickly expand or shrink your active component selection based on adjacent geometry. Whether working with vertices, edges, or faces in Edit Mode, these tools help speed up your workflow by growing or shrinking selections incrementally without needing to manually click individual elements. This guide explains the essential keyboard shortcuts, menu navigation, and practical applications for using these selection tools efficiently.

Prerequisites for Using Select More/Less

To use the Select More and Select Less commands, you must be working on a mesh object in Edit Mode:

  1. Select your 3D object in Object Mode.
  2. Press Tab to enter Edit Mode.
  3. Choose your desired selection mode: Vertex (1), Edge (2), or Face (3).
  4. Make an initial selection of at least one vertex, edge, or face.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The fastest way to use these commands is via keyboard shortcuts:

  • Select More (Expand): Press Ctrl + Numpad + (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + Numpad + (Mac).
  • Select Less (Shrink): Press Ctrl + Numpad - (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + Numpad - (Mac).

Note: If your keyboard lacks a dedicated Numpad, you can enable "Emulate Numpad" in Edit > Preferences > Input, or use the top menu method outlined below.

Accessing Commands via the Top Menu

If you prefer using the graphical user interface instead of hotkeys:

  1. Click on the Select menu located in the top-left corner of the 3D Viewport.
  2. Hover over Select More/Less.
  3. Click either More to expand the selection or Less to contract it.

Adjusting Selection Settings

After executing a Select More or Select Less command, an Adjust Last Operation panel appears in the bottom-left corner of the 3D Viewport (or press F9 to bring it up).

From this panel, you can modify:

  • Target: Adjust how many steps the selection grows or shrinks at once without pressing the shortcut multiple times.
  • Face Step: Controls how face selections expand across adjacent edges or vertices.
  • Keep Connected: Restricts the expansion strictly to connected geometry.