@RobOK - When in Mouse Navigation mode, the default select mode (the arrow) behaviour when you click on a blank spot of the board is to move the canvas - it does not draw a box (you would need to hold down the Shift key).

Here is an except from another, recent post on the subject of Navigation Modes:

My laptop has a trackpad and a touchscreen, but I also have a mouse (with a wheel) connected.

Miro defaults me to touchscreen mode the very first time I access a board, e.g., I have cleared my cookies/am in an incognito window/a new computer, but once I set my navigation mode to Mouse, it remembers my choice.

I only use a mouse with Miro as I have a small, wireless mouse.

To zoom in/out, I use the wheel:

To move/pan around the board, with my cursor in pan mode, i.e., the hand, I click and drag. Note: You can quickly switch between select and pan mode using the V or H hotkey. You can also toggle pan mode from select mode by pressing the Spacebar.

In this example, I will use the V hotkey to switch between select and pan:

Thanks, that explains it! I did have other wonky navigation things (like where the mouse click was sticky), but overall it was not understanding the above.

Can the RIGHT mouse click be defined as a selection square, that would make it better!

@RobOK 

Can the RIGHT mouse click be defined as a selection square, that would make it better!

I like that idea! I would suggest adding it to the Wish List category. You’d have some competition with this existing Idea:

Right-click and drag mouse for navigating canvas

So I created this wish list idea:

Right-click-and-drag to select multiple objects