[Solved] Shift-click when selecting objects not grouping obj

[themountinman]

When I attempt to select more than one object (shape) while in selection mode, shift + left click just shifts selection to a nearby text box. It does not group the targeted object with the first object I selected. Is there a setting or option that could be affecting this behavior? I'm pretty sure it used to work (there are multiple links on the web indicating that this behavior was available in the past).

I can still group objects within a box selection, but there are many times this select is too inclusive. Not being able to add to the selection list is a pretty big issue for me. Adding/removing from the selection list with keyboard/mouse controls is something I do a lot of in my drawings.

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Strange.
You can try to reset your OpenOffice user profile.

Please add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[John_Ha]

Try this test file where it works for me.

[themountinman]

Using the test file provided by John_Ha, I had no problem with adding objects to the selection list with shift+click.

I believe I know what the problem is. The ods file I was working with was a converted MS Word 2003 doc. I'm guessing that the process used to convert the MS Word drawing objects is less than perfect, and the objects created aren't set up to work properly with OpenOffice. I will likely have to recreate my drawing from scratch in OO to get correct behavior. That's not really a big deal. I prefer that to selection not working as expected.

I guess this issue should change to 'converted MS Word doc drawing objects not group selectable'.

[John_Ha]

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for an explanation - it applies to Draw too.

You might find that creating a new, empty Draw document and Insert > File ..., and pull in your file, fixes it. Save as a .odg.

[themountinman]

Thanks! I'll try that.

[pebrown25]

I have been having this problem of not being able to Shift-select multiple items. I have been remiss about going back and forth between Word and Open Office with the same document, but that doesn't seem to be the source of the problem for me. I've created a new document under Open Office and INSERTed two jpg FILEs and a text frame but am not able to select any two objects with Shift+Select. In fact, I can't shift-select the frame at all. I've also tried renaming the Users/.../Roaming/OpenOffice folder, forcing a new one to be created when opening the document with the same result.

Shift_Select_Group_Problem.odt

This text file has 2 inserted picture and one text frame.

(43.03 KiB) Downloaded 205 times

[keme]

Tools and procedures are a bit different from the wordprocessing application to the drawing app. This thread (and the subforum where it is posted) is about issues with OpenOffice Draw, and procedures described here do not apply to objects in a Writer document.