[Andy]

An object is a collection of vertices and surfaces. A surface may reference vertices that are also reference in other surfaces (but vertices can't be shared across objects).

When you make a 'Rect', Ellipse or line/poly/line etc, these are creating an object with a single surface.

When you select an object and set the color (or perform some other surface-related function), each surface in the object is affected.

Select an object and switch between the select modes (object, surface, vertex) - look at the information at the top of the control panel to see how many surfaces/vertices there are.

If you are selecting more than one vertex, you are probably dragging over more than one. Try selecting from another view, or using a click rather than a drag. There may be > 1 vertex at the same position too.

Once you've worked out how to use the views together and work out how they are related, it will be much easier.

Hope this helps,

Andy