Re: [Nautilus-list] Selection of multiple items with the keyboard

[Darin Adler <darin bentspoon com>]

On Wednesday, July 11, 2001, at 03:05  PM, Christian Rose wrote:

> While trying out all this selecting, I noticed that selecting multiple
> items by navigating with only the keyboard seems to not possible at this
> moment. This is a feature I miss, since I've used it frequently in the
> Windows Explorer and other file managers.

While the shift-key feature you mention from Windows Explorer is not 
present, there is a way to select multiple items navigating with only the 
keyboard. The feature is confusing because it originally used the Ctrl key 
with arrows and the space bar, then it was changed to use the Alt key to 
avoid conflicting with Sawfish's use of Ctrl, then John Harper changed 
Sawfish back to using Alt and Nautilus back to using Ctrl. So to test this,
 you need a new enough Nautilus (so it uses Ctrl) and a new enough Sawfish 
(so it doesn't use Ctrl).

Make one item selected some way. Then hit Ctrl-arrow to choose another 
item. The original item is still selected and the new item is highlighted 
with a box around its name. Hit Ctrl-space. Now the second item is 
selected.

This technique allows you to select any set of items with the keyboard. It 
doesn't allow you to select an entire rectangle of icons all at  once, but 
on the other hand it lets you make selections that aren't rectangular 
patterns.

We could also add the rectangular selection with Shift, especially if lots 
of other former Windows users request it.

    -- Darin