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

It's fixed!

In the "security update" of MS Office (the one that Windows Update gave me yesterday), this issue seemed to be fixed.  Thanks Microsoft!

Answer 3

Thanks for taking the time to reply Terry, but I think it's a bug rather than a design decision (or omission), which is what I think you mean by "shortcoming".

To repeat two of my bullet points: lasso select appears to *actually work* for some people, and for me at least works within legacy drawing canvases.  So it's not a matter of the code being deleted as part of a drawing engine change, with the need to rewrite it entirely in order to fix the bug.  Instead it's merely that in some cases the code isn't kicking in properly.

Anyway, if a Microsoft Word programmer confirms the worst then so be it.  But I would really like to know that a programmer has actually *seen it*.  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).

Answer 4

It is unlikely to be fixed until the next major release as it does seem to be a shortcoming of the new graphics engine.

Answer 5

Despite saying that I would file a bug officially with Microsoft, I put this off a bit and just tried to do it now, only to discover that my support period is only 90 days (!!).  Bug reports through tech support are meant to be free, but you have to give your card details up front and if they decide that it's not really a bug they'll charge £50!  I'm not prepared to risk that.

So could someone within their support period please file this as a bug through tech support?  You'll need to engage in a bit of back-and-forth to convince the tech support rep that it really is a bug, but if you persevere they'll pass it on to programming.  Things to stress:

• (The main thing) It only happens for some users, so it's not a design decision.
• It didn't happen in Word 2007.
• Even for those users it does happen for (at least, for me), it doesn't happen within legacy Drawing Areas.