Inspiring

Answered

Why can't I select multiple objects?

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
July 2, 2025
6 replies
1523 views

I'm trying to resize several images together on a page. I try to select more than one image frame by holding Shift, but it doesn't register. It simply deselects the previous image frame and selects the new one. If I try dragging from outside of the document's borders, it selects the image frames but also selects other frames I drag across. I thought perhaps it has something to do with the images each being anchored to different text, but I just tried importing a few images without anchors and still I can't use shift to select them all. Any ideas? I'm using 19.5.4 on Windows 10. Thank you.

Bug

Correct answer Jeff33740050deru

applied the text wrap to it, so those images couldn't be selected using Shift clicking. When I created the new one page document I recognized the text wrap issue.

By @Jeff33740050deru

Frankly, I'm not sure what "text wrap issue" you're referring to. Normally, text wrap shouldn't affect the ability to select multiple objects using Shift.

Yeah, I'm confused about it. Maybe it has nothing to do with the weird wrap and it just glitched on me in the large document for whatever reason. I suppose it doesn't matter much at this point. Using the properties panel I found a workaround by copying and pasting values for the resizing of multiple objects so that they match one another. Thank you all for trying to help.

jmlevy

Community Expert

@Abhishek Rao @Laubender @rob day @leo.r

I wrote this in my first answer (July 3rd): it seems to me that it has always been impossible to select multiple image frames when they are anchored…

Am I wrong?

L

Laubender

Community Expert

@jmlevy said: "Am I wrong?"

No.

Exactly that is not possible:

Selecting more than one image of a couple of images that are anchored ( or one image that is anchored and a couple of others that are not anchored. )

Like the situation we see in Jeff's InDesign document that he has provided.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Jeff33740050deru,

Thank you so much for sharing the additional details and the test document. That really helps a lot.

Allow me some time to test this on my end and get back to you. In the meantime, could you please try testing this in the latest InDesign version, 20.4.1, and let me know if the same behavior occurs there as well?

Looking forward to hearing your update and I'll circle back as soon as I have more information from my side.

Abhishek

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi Jeff,

could you provide a sample InDesign document, just one page, where you see the issue?

You say: " … If I try dragging from outside of the document's borders, it selects the image frames but also selects other frames I drag across."

Well yes, you could try to deselect the frames you do not need by holding the Shift key and click the ones not needed.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

J

Jeff33740050deruAuthor

Inspiring

Uwe, I think your suggestion to share a one page document led me to realize it probably has to do with the combination of text anchoring and text wrap. I created a new one page document to share with you, and shift click worked fine with anchored text until I applied text wrap to one of the two images I placed among the text. Now shift clicking the two images doesn't work. I'm attaching the document here.

Shift_Click_Test_Doc.zip

Joel Cherney

Community Expert

@jmlevy did have the right answer, a few days ago, but no one seems to have noticed.

Certain kinds of object are not multi-selectable in InDesign. So, you should be able to e.g. shift-select three normal frames with text in them. However, anchored objects are not multi-selectable. You can only select one anchored object at a time with the Selection tool.

The phrase "anchored text" doesn't have a definition, formally speaking, in InDesign. You have one text frame, and in that text frame you have anchored two objects - two frames - each one containing a linked image. There is no way to select both of those images at the same time, because they are anchored objects. I feel certain about this because (I'm heaving a big sigh, over here) I'm working on a massive project with dozens of target languages, where the source InDesign file contained many thousands of anchored objects of all descriptions. I've had to write scripts to automate actions that have to happen to many anchored objects, because I can't just multi-select all of the whatevers on each page (images, anchored text frames, form fields, et cetera) and apply a single operation to them.

@jmlevy 's answer from July 3rd is the correct one.

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @Jeff33740050deru , Just to clarify, are any of the objects you are trying to select grouped? Here I’ve selected a group not the objects inside:

And, can you select multiple objects from the Layers panel via shif-clicking individual objects’ selection icons?

J

Jeff33740050deruAuthor

Inspiring

Rob, I do not have the images grouped. I can indeed Shift Click under Layers to select multiple items under the 1 Layer I'm using. I haven't applied other layers.

leo.r

Community Expert

I'm using 19.5.4 on Windows 10.

By @Jeff33740050deru

And do you have the same problem with InDesign 20.x (2025)? You can install it in addition to your InDesign 2024 (just make sure to deselect the option to remove older versions when installing).

J

Jeff33740050deruAuthor

Inspiring

I don't really want to install a new version at this time. Was there an issue with selecting multiple objects before the new version?

leo.r

Community Expert

I don't really want to install a new version at this time. Was there an issue with selecting multiple objects before the new version?

By @Jeff33740050deru

No there was no such an issue. If you do have the problem with both InDesign 2024 and 2025, this would mean one thing, while if the problem is only with 2024, this would mean something different.

Try to do these general troubleshooting steps:

https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-rebuilding-preferences-cache/

Also, are you using any window management utilities such as Magnet or corporate security software? If you do, try to disable them and see if it makes a difference.

J

Jeff33740050deruAuthor

Inspiring

Actually, when the objects are side by side, Shift clicking works to select multiple. But when they are vertically arranged it doesn't.

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