When using a tool from the Special Tools palette, a handle selection is required in order to choose which objects(s) the tool's function will affect. Some tools, for example, only allow for selecting and interacting with a single measure's worth of notes at a time.
However, in some cases, when switching from Page View to Scroll View, you may see the handles available for all the elements in view, regardless of whether the tool has the ability to work with elements in more than one measure or not.
If this happens, you may select a handle and see that the tool's function does not affect the object. To fix this, simply click an empty spot in the measure containing the object(s) you want to change. Then reselect the handle(s) and attempt to use the tool again.
Note: In order to see the effects of this issue, you must be using a document with more than one staff. This issue affects the majority of tools in the Special Tools palette in Finale v26.3, v27.0, and v27.1.