The mouse is used for many things including selecting items stored on your computer. In this article we share some useful tips and shortcuts that will make selecting multiple items, such as photos or files, quicker and easier.
The simplest way of selecting a single file is to point at it with the mouse pointer and then pressing and releasing the left side button of the mouse. If you want to select a second file as well, simply clicking it will release the previously selected file, unless you use one of the techniques explained in this article.
The quickest way to select all the files and any sub folders in the folder you have open is to press the “CTRL” and “A” keys at the same time. Another way is to click in an empty area of the folder in one of the bottom corners and, while holding the mouse button down, drag upwards to the opposite corner.
If you want to select files that are not contiguous, then click on the first file or folder you would like to select, and then press and hold the “CTRL” key down while you click on the other items you would like to select.
If you want to select a set of contiguous files or folders, click on the first file in the list, and then press the “Shift” key while you click on the last file or folder in the list. When you do this, the two files you selected, as well as all the files in-between, will be selected.
If you would like a way to select multiple files without holding the “CTRL” key down, you can go to the View tab and tick “Item Checkboxes”. Now when you position your mouse over items, a checkbox will appear in the top left hand corner of the file icon, or on the left margin if you have list view activated. Simply click the check box to select that, and any other file. Once you have selected files, you can delete, print, copy or perform other actions on them in bulk, rather than one by one.
