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

Please provide more detail on your problem. Are the objects Behind Text?

Answer 3

This is terrible.  It makes the drawing feature in word 2010 un-usable!!

Answer 4

I agree, this is definitely a bug.  In fact I spotted it in the public beta but it made drawing so unusable that I just assumed that drawing was completely broken in that build (which I assumed would be fixed!), and didn't bother to test further.  I can't believe it made it to the final product!  Try writing a few words in ink and try and select them with ctrl+click or the selection pane, you'll be there all day!

Reporting it: my workaround is better than nothing, but this still needs to be fixed (hopefully in SP1), so we need to make sure it's reported.  I think the official way to report it is to tell tech support, as if you had a genuine question.  After much back-and-forth you should be able to convince them that it is actually a bug, and after being escalated several times it should eventually reach programming.  I suggest everyone having this problem do that until we are assured a programmer has heard about it.

My workaround: In previous versions of Word when you started to draw, a box would appear in your document saying "create your drawing here" or something, called a drawing canvas.  Canvases are no longer created automatically by default in Word 2010, but this can be changed in options: go to the advanced page, and it's the fifth checkbox down (under editing options, the first section).  The key point is, lasso selectiondoes work in drawing canvases, even in Word 2010.

Variation of the workaround: If you don't like canvases being autocreated (e.g. it probably won't help with inking) you can add a button to the ribbon or quick access toolbar to create one manually. I'll assume you know how to customise the ribbon, and just tell you which command you're looking for: it's simply called "insert drawing", and you can find it "commands not in the ribbon" list.  In the keyboard shortcuts dialog it is the "InsertDrawing" command.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

The method for reporting issues and possible bugs is supposed to be through the Connect site,http://connect.microsoft.com/. After the last site redesign, though, there's now a list of products that are currently accepting bug reports. Of all the Office programs, only OneNote and Groove are on that list -- apparently Microsoft doesn't want to hear about bugs in Word 2010 (and there are more than a few).

---

Jay Freedman

MS Word MVP  FAQ: http://word.mvps.org