I was working on a wall panel, and after selecting the objects, I pressed CTRL + L to link their data so I could edit one and apply the changes to all. However, it didn't work as expected. Instead of showing the text box to choose what to link, it instantly changed the axes to colors—X red, Y green, Z blue. Now, I can't move or rotate them freely and have to use the item box for adjustments. I tried undoing it, but that didn't solve the issue.
Reply: This is how every axes look
Posting a community answer for future users searching for this problem....
As you explained in a comment, it turns out that you pressed Ctrl. (Ctrl-Period) instead of CtrlL. The Ctrl. hotkey has the effect of toggling the Transform > Affect Only > Origins option:
When this option is turned on, selecting an object marks the origin with a set of axes in the viewport display, like this:
and any transformations affect only the origin while the object stays fixed in place.
To fix this, you can use the Ctrl. a second time to toggle the option off, or uncheck the option from the pull down "Options" menu in the top-right corner of the viewport, as shown in the screenshot above.
.that caused the axes to change. Now everything is fine. $\endgroup$