Question about Material IDs

Reality Hack

Okay, so this is a two-part question. First, is there an easier/quicker way to edit Material IDs? I've been doing it through the surfaces tab, and it's just a pain. Like, if I want to make a character's skin one material ID so that I can select it in post easier, I have to go through and select the face, then edit the material ID for it, then select the torso, and edit the material ID for that, and the arms, and the legs... And if you have a couple different characters... It just gets rather tedious rather fast. Or is there an object ID or something? Other 3d applications I've worked with usually have both, so it'd be great if I could do that.

Second part: how about some anti-aliasing or something on those IDs? Because my renders have absolutely none. And if you edit those materials in post, the edges are very obvious. I could cut myself on those edges!

Thanks in advance.