Cannot Select Objects using mouse cursor (Word 2010)

Question

Hi

I recently upgraded from Office 2007 Pro to 2010 Pro+. I inserted some shapes and when to select them - prior to grouping. I did the 'normal' thing: click the arrow shape on the ribbon, clicked Select Objects, brought my cursor on the page again and left-click and hold while I lasooed the objects. The lasooe part didn't happen. Nothing was captured by moving the cursor over the area where the objects were.

Can anyone suggest what's happening, and how it can be put right?

Thanks

Answer 1

Lasso selection works as long as the document is in Word 97-2003 format (in Compatibility Mode). When it's converted to Word 2010 format (or created new in Word 2010), dragging doesn't even show the lasso outline.

This is not true in Word 2007, which does lasso selection in both formats.

I assume this has something to do with the change in the graphics engine between 20007 and 2010, but it's a bug whether Microsoft classifies it that way or not. Ctrl+click is not a usable substitute when there are a large number of small pieces to be grouped.

As a sort-of-workaround, try using the Selection Pane (on the dropdown from the Select button). Unfortunately, that doesn't support Shift+click to select a lot of items in one click.

Answer 2

That's an interesting conspiracy theory. But I've dealt with too many Microsoft engineers over too many versions to believe it. Let me know when you write a perfect piece of software.

Answer 3

That's an old MS ploy.  When a product is almost mature they put in a bug or two to encourage upgrades to the next version.  2003 Excel VBA was perfect but was replaced by a bug-filled version in 2007.  I wonder what bugs will be introduced in 2013.

Answer 4

The lack of lasso selection in Word 2010 has not been fixed, and as far as I'm aware there is no plan to fix it there. However, it does work in Word 2013 Preview when you click Home > Select > Select Objects and drag a selection rectangle around the objects.

Answer 5

Which is why I'm begging for people with active tech support to push this through to programming (which does happen, if you're persistent enough).

After over TWO YEARS of people posting on this issue, I doubt that even if someone finally gets through that it will matter, relative to actually getting something fixed. I can hear it now "at present Mr/Ms xxxxx, if you need to use that feature please save your document in the doc format and continue. This will be addressed at some unknown future point in time."

However, it is almost worth buying another one just to take part in pushing their tech support to acknowledge exactly what is going on. Conjecture is not even worth the time to type it at this stage.