Cannot select object in layout view

[TimothyFratta]

Hello,

I am a total noob with ArcGIS, but I just finished UC Davis's Coursera course Fundamentals of GIS, so I am starting.

Anyhow, I am creating a layout for a solar project and all was going fine until today. I simply cannot select any of the objects in insertes in the layout: I can't select the North arrow, the scale, any of the text boxes I added. Nada.

I click on the Select by Rectangle tool, but when I click on any of the objects I've added to the layout they no longer are highlighted. Even if I click on Select All from the ribbon, the object seem selected in the Content pane but they are NOT highlighted in my main screen.

What am I doing wrong?

Please help!

Thanks,

Tim

[RichardHowe · Accepted solution]

Tim, I would guess that these items are locked.

When you lock them in the options tab of the element pane then they are no longer selectable via the select tool (as this gives access to resizing, moving etc.). Once they are locked they can only be accessed by highlighting the element in the contents.

To check, right-click an element in your contents pane and choose properties from the dropdown menu.

[TimothyFratta]

Thank you Richard, you are spot on!

[TimothyFratta]

Hi Richard,

Your solution has helped me highlight my elements in the layout. I was able to unlock everyone one of them individually (and I'm wondering why they were all locked, what command did I do to get myself into that situation?).

But, I continue not to be able to select them using the Select by Rectangle tool. I can only select the elements in the Contents pane, by Ctrl+click on them there. None of the Select tools work.

Do you know why?

Thanks!

Tim

[RichardHowe]

Tim,

Glad that helped. The padlock icon you see at the top of contents pane is another option. If all your elements were in one group then you could inadvertently lock them all by clicking that...or ctrl+L key when it was highlighted