Selecting multiple objects

[Jon Riley]

This feels like a really dumb question, as it was dead easy in my previous
version of Word - hold shift and drag a box around the objects.
This doesn't work in Word 2007 - I seem to have to select each one, then
hold shift while clicking every other one in turn.
Surely there is something simple I'm missing?
(The Help files are no good - of course...)

I have discovered the dragging method works if I make a "New Drawing Canvas"
first (I then get a pointer instead of the cursor). Is this the only way?
(I'm working with a whole load of graphics in an ordinary Word document, no
drawing canvas. They are simple circles with text boxes in them.)

 

[CyberTaz]

Not really a dumb question, just a dumb location - On the Home Tab, right
end, click the Select button then pick the Select Objects tool... You'd
think it would be available in the Drawing Tools as well, huh?

 

[Jon Riley]

Belated thanks!

Not really a dumb question, just a dumb location - On the Home Tab, right
end, click the Select button then pick the Select Objects tool... You'd
think it would be available in the Drawing Tools as well, huh?

 

[Suzanne Kelly]

Hi Jon, I work with objects in Word quite a lot. My preferred method is to avoid the drawing canvas altogether (I turned it off using Word Options > Advanced > Editing Options (the top group) and deselecting Automatically create drawing canvas...)

You may already know this, but there are two selection modes in Word, one for selecting text and the other for selecting objects. Turn on Select Objects (in the Home ribbon, Editing group on the far right) and then you can click and drag to select multiple objects. To get back to text editing mode, just click Select Objects again or double click anywhere in your document. I keep Select Objects on my Quick Access toolbar.

The other quirk that might be troubling you is this: in the .docx file format, Word treats clipart and inserted images differently from Word objects like text boxes and autoshapes. It won't allow you to select those concurrently. So my workaround is to save the file back to .doc format, and all objects can be selected at the same time.

If you ever need to ungroup charts that you've pasted in from Excel, it's handy to know about this file format difference. The .docx format does not allow it. best, sk

 

[Suzanne Kelly]

Hi Jon, I work with objects in Word quite a lot. My preferred method is to avoid the drawing canvas altogether (I turned it off using Word Options > Advanced > Editing Options (the top group) and deselecting Automatically create drawing canvas...)

You may already know this, but there are two selection modes in Word, one for selecting text and the other for selecting objects. Turn on Select Objects (in the Home ribbon, Editing group on the far right) and then you can click and drag to select multiple objects. To get back to text editing mode, just click Select Objects again or double click anywhere in your document. I keep Select Objects on my Quick Access toolbar.

The other quirk that might be troubling you is this: in the .docx file format, Word treats clipart and inserted images differently from Word objects like text boxes and autoshapes. It won't allow you to select those concurrently. So my workaround is to save the file back to .doc format, and all objects can be selected at the same time.

If you ever need to ungroup charts that you've pasted in from Excel, it's handy to know about this file format difference. The .docx format does not allow it. best, sk