Selecting

Selection in Pose Mode is very similar to the one in Edit Mode, with a few deviations: You can only select whole bones in Pose Mode, not roots/tips...

All

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ All

Shortcut:

A

Select all selectable bones.

None

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ None

Shortcut:

Alt-A

Deselect all bones, but the active bone stays the same.

Invert

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Invert

Shortcut:

Ctrl-I

Toggle the selection state of all visible bones.

Box Select

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Box Select

Shortcut:

B

Interactive box selection.

Circle Select

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Circle Select

Shortcut:

C

Interactive circle selection.

Lasso Select

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Lasso Select

Shortcut:

Ctrl-Alt-LMB

See Select Lasso.

Select Mirror

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Select Mirror

Shortcut:

Shift-Ctrl-M

Flip the selection from one side to another.

Select More/Less

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ More/Less

Parent [, Child ]

You can deselect the active bone and select its immediate parent or one of its children.

Extend Parent Shift-[, Extend Child Shift-]

Similar to Parent/Child but it keeps the active bone in the selection.

Select Grouped

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Select Grouped

Shortcut:

Shift-G

You can select bones, based on various properties, through the Select Grouped pop-up menu Shift-G:

Collection

Selects all bones that are share at least one bone collection with the active bone.

Color

Selects all bones that have the same color as the active bone.

Keying Set

All bones affected by active Keying Set

Select Linked

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Select Linked

Shortcut:

Ctrl-L

Selects all the bones in the chain which the active (last selected) bone belongs to.

All Forks

Selects all bones connected to the active bone even if the branch off from the current bone.

Linked bones selection.

A single selected bone.

Its whole chain selected with Linked.

Select Pattern

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Select Pattern...

Selects all bones whose name matches a given pattern. Supported wild-cards: * matches everything, ? matches any single character, [abc] matches characters in "abc", and [!abc] match any character not in "abc". As an example *house* matches any name that contains "house", while floor* matches any name starting with "floor".

Case Sensitive

The matching can be chosen to be case sensitive or not.

Extend

When Extend checkbox is checked the selection is extended instead of generating a new one.

Constraint Target

Reference

Mode:

Pose Mode

Menu:

Select ‣ Constraint Target

Select bones used as targets for the currently selected bones