Selecting and working inside groups

In this movie I'll show you how to convert…our lackluster 3D letters into this highly graphic effect here.…And in doing so I'll show you how to select and work inside groups.…So the first thing we need to do is extract…these light gray surfaces from the darker gray extruded edges.…Because these letters are a group, if I click on them…with the Black Arrow tool then I'll select everything inside that group.…That's not what I want.…So…I'll need to switch over to the White Arrow…tool, which you can get by pressing the A key.…Then I'll click off the letters to deselect them.…

And now note, if I click somewhere on this path outline around the g,…I'll either select a segment, as in this case, or an independent anchor point.…If I want to select an entire path outline, then I press the…Alt key or the Option key on a Mac and click on that path.…And notice now, I've selected the entire path outline.…I can…see it's a compound path up here in the Control panel.…And what that means is it's a path with another path cut out of it.…