Need help deselecting group of files with pointer

liquidsense · Dec 3, 2012

I'm embarrassed to say it, but for the last 5 years that I've been using a mac, I've never known how to do a relatively simple task on my PC.

Say I have a folder with 15 images in list view. I press "cmd a" to select all the items in the folder. Now, let's say I want to de-select files 5 through 10. How do I do that?

On a PC, I would just hold ctrl, then hit file 5, then hold ctrl+shift, and hit file 10. But, on the mac, when I do that (with cmd rather than ctrl), it simply deselects 5 and 10.

I would think, intuitively, this should work. If I'm selecting (rather than de-selecting), then cmd+shift works just fine!

GGJstudios · Dec 3, 2012

liquidsense said:
I'm embarrassed to say it, but for the last 5 years that I've been using a mac, I've never known how to do a relatively simple task on my PC.

Say I have a folder with 15 images in list view. I press "cmd a" to select all the items in the folder. Now, let's say I want to de-select files 5 through 10. How do I do that?

On a PC, I would just hold ctrl, then hit file 5, then hold ctrl+shift, and hit file 10. But, on the mac, when I do that (with cmd rather than ctrl), it simply deselects 5 and 10.

I would think, intuitively, this should work. If I'm selecting (rather than de-selecting), then cmd+shift works just fine!

Once you've selected a range of items, hold the Command key and click each one you want to deselect. You can't deselect a range within a range that has been selected.

simsaladimbamba · Dec 3, 2012

If no file is selected, select the first file, hold down COMMAND and select the rest of the files one by one while holding down the CMD key.

liquidsense · Dec 3, 2012

Wow. Really? You can't select particular files, as well as particular ranges?

So, for instance, on a PC, if I were *selecting* files, i could hold ctrl and click three random files, then (while continually pressing ctrl) I could press and hold shift and click a file 10 files away and get the entire range (between the last two clicked files) added into my selection. Same is true for the inverse for deselection.

You can't do that on OSX?

simsaladimbamba · Dec 3, 2012

liquidsense said:
Wow. Really? You can't select particular files, as well as particular ranges?

So, for instance, on a PC, if I were *selecting* files, i could hold ctrl and click three random files, then (while continually pressing ctrl) I could press and hold shift and click a file 10 files away and get the entire range (between the last two clicked files) added into my selection. Same is true for the inverse for deselection.

You can't do that on OSX?

You can:

liquidsense · Dec 3, 2012

Just what I was looking for. Thank you, kind sir. The difference between mac and pc, then, is that you don't simultaneously hold the buttons for the mac. And, the specific range deselect doesn't work.

GGJstudios · Dec 4, 2012

GGJstudios said:
Once you've selected a range of items, hold the Command key and click each one you want to deselect. You can't deselect a range within a range that has been selected.

The video posted only shows selecting a range that hasn't been selected. It does not show deselecting a range from within a selected range, which was your question. I haven't seen any method of doing that in Finder.

simsaladimbamba · Dec 4, 2012

GGJstudios said:
The video posted only shows selecting a range that hasn't been selected. It does not show deselecting a range from within a selected range, which was your question. I haven't seen any method of doing that in Finder.

I agree and tried that, but it does not work. Strange, but then, I never had to use that feature before yesterday in order to try it.

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Need help deselecting group of files with pointer

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