CR 2011 Background Image Problem

I was designing reports in VS2008 and found that if I added a background image that fills the entire section and is behind the field objects, I can no longer click on a field object to select it. Clicking on an object selects the background image object. In order to select an object, I have to select it in the report objects dropdown in the properties page then click the main report tab to put the focus back on the designer surface. This is a pain when positioning a lot of objects.

I posted this problem in the .NET CR forum and I was told that there are no more planned SP for that version so I converted my projects to VS 2010 and installed CR for 2010 and the latest service pack. Same problem. I again posted the problem to the forum and I was told that the CR designer in VS is very basic and was never intended to have the functionality of the full CR product and that I should upgrade. I downloaded the full version of CR 2011 and applied the latest SP. Same problem.

Am I doing something wrong? If not, can this functionality be added to CR 2011 and CR for VS 2010? It seems that it is a basic capability to be able to select all report objects by clicking on them.