You select an object by clicking on it with the Pick tool
.
You can see that the object is selected when its bounding box is shown:
To select more than one object you can click on each of them while keeping the Shift key down. You may also drag a rectangle (keep left mouse button down) to fence the objects you want to select.
You can add more objects to the selection when you click with the Shift key down; otherwise any previous selection is released when you make a new selection.
If you click outside any objects all selected objects are released.
You can select all objects (except hidden or locked objects by means of the Select All command in the Edit menu.
You can invert your selection (release all selected objects and select all unselected objects) by means of the Invert Selection command in the Edit menu. This can be useful if you want to select all objects, except one or a few. Then you start by selecting the objects you not want to select, and then apply Invert Selection.
You can step cyclicly through the available objects by means of the Tab key (forward)
or SHIFT+Tab (backwards).
The commands Select Next
and Select Previous
in the Edit menu have the same effect.
If you have selected more than one object you can move them in one operation.
The
You can also move objects in steps by means of the arrow keys. The steps are depending on the grid density, which by default is 12 points.
Micro steps of 1 point are achieved by using the shift key in combination with the arrow keys.
Select the objects you want to align and use one of
the Align commands
in the Edit menu.
You can also use keyboard accelerators:
Move Objects
When the cursor is over a selected object it changes into a Move tool 
.
If you keep the left mouse button pressed you can move the object with the cursor.
cursor is shown when the cursor is inside the bounding box
of the selection.
Object Alignment
You can align two or more objects vertically or horizontally.
 |
 |
 |
| Left | Center | Right |
| ALT+L | ALT+C | ALT+R |
 |
 |
 |
| Top | Middle | Bottom |
| ALT+T | ALT+M | ALT+B |
If you keep the left mouse button pressed you can resize the image with the cursor. If you drag a corner the aspect ratio of the object is preserved (the object is scaled). If you drag an edge the object is stretched.
Image objects can also be scaled or stretched in the
Image Layout dialog.
Rotate Objects
If you have selected the Rotate mode the cursor
changes into a Rotate tool near the corners of the bounding box of a selection.
Move the mouse to perform freehand rotation of the object.
Use the Rotate > Arbirary command
in the Edit menu if you want an exact angle.
You can change the object priority. Select an object and press
the + key to increase its priority by one, the - key to decrease its priority by one,
ALT and + pressed simultaneously to give the object top priority, or
ALT and - pressed simultaneously to give the object bottom priority.
The Order commands
in the Edit menu have the same effect.
You make a group out of a selection by pressing CTRL+G or by means of
the Group command
in the Edit menu.
A group can become member of another group in a later selection.
If you want to break a group down into individual objects you select the group and press
CTRL+U or use the Ungroup command
in the Edit menu.
Press CTRL+D again to make more duplicates. Each new duplicate is placed
25 points below and to the right of its source,
and the duplicated object(s) become selected in place of the source.
To make an object semi-transparent do the following:
Delete Objects
You can delete selected objects from the canvas by means of the Delete key
on the keyboard. You can also use the BackSpace key or the
Delete command
in the Edit menu.
Object Priority
Objects are by default drawn in the order in which they are created.
The drawing order is important because objects may cover each other.
Grouped Objects
When you have a selection of two or more objects you can group the objects.
A group is treated as a single composite object.
You can move and resize the group as one object, and you can change any of
their compatible attributes (for example fill color) together, but you can not
access the individual members of the group.
Object Duplication
You can create a duplicate of one or more objects by selecting the object(s), and the
press CTRL+D or use the Duplicate command
in the Edit menu.
Object Transparency
An object can be made semi-transparent which means that objects behind the object
are blended with the image and thus become visible.
Drag the slider to the right to set a transparency. At its rightmost position the object becomes
completely transparent (invisible).
 | You can use the Transparency command in the Edit menu and open the Transparency dialog to obtain a more precise setting. |
Semi-transparency can be used for many purposes. You may, for example, highlight an area by placing a semitransparent filled area over the area:
You can also blend two images to get special effects. For instance take these two images:
 |  |
Make the overlay semi-transparent, and put them on top of each other:
| Some platforms do not support genuine semi-transparency and use dithering methods to emulate the visual effect. This is for example the case on Windows NT 4.0. |
Hidden objects are no longer visible on the canvas, they are not printed, they are not visible if you save or send the layout as an image. They are, however, saved if you save the Layout, but still invisible when the saved layout is restored.
The purpose of hidden objects is to make certain objects temporarly invisible. This gives you an easy switch between two versions of a layout, for example a map or an aerial photo with or without annotation.
Version without hidden objects
Version with some hidden objects
To make hidden objects visible again you must use the Show Hidden command in the Edit menu.
Note, that there is no way to select just one hidden object and make that object visible. This is because a hidden object cannot be selected as long as it is hidden.
It may be a good idea to group objects before they are hidden.
This makes it much easier to manage the situation if you need to make only some of the hidden
objects visible: Use Show Hidden, select the group you want,
use Invert Selection, and then
hide the unwanted groups.
Locked Objects
You can lock objects. Select one or more objects and use
the Lock command
in the Edit menu.
Locked objects are visible, but not selectable.
The purpose of locked objects is to secure them against being selected and modified by mistake.
This might for instance be an object that serves as "background" for the layout (an image or a rectangle that occupies the entire canvas).
Another example is that you want to make a sequence of layouts with a common "template". First, create the "template". Then use the Select All command, Lock, and Save Layout.
You can now add the objects that you want for the first layout. When you have saved the first layout you can use Select All and Delete to wipe out everything except the common "template". You can also create new layouts to the sequence in a later Montage session if you start by selecting the saved "template" in Open Layout.
You can also use a saved layout with locked objects as a fixed overlay that
you add as a "top layer" by inserting it before you
print your canvas.
Layout Status
You can get a summary of the objects on the canvas in the Status Display
which can be shown below the Tool Boxes.
It is hidden by default.
Use the Layout Status command to show or hide the status display.
The status display may be useful if you have many objects and the canvas behaviour is different from what you expect. The explanation might be that some objects are locked or hidden, or you may have grouped objects.
The summary only counts "top level" objects. This means that a group of objects count as one object, no matter how many objects or nested groups are in the group.