Select several items

Question

Sorry maybe I am stupid but I don´t know how to select several files in File Manager or several mails in Pantheon Mail

Answer 1

In Files, there are several ways to do this. Assuming you are using the default grid view you can:

With the mouse

• Select each item by clicking on the tick emblem that appears when you hover over it or
• Hold down the <Ctrl> key and click anywhere on each item you want to select or
• Hold down the <Shift> key and click anywhere on the first and last item you want to select. All items in a linear sequence between these two items will also be selected or
• Press and hold down the primary button over whitespace and drag the pointer to create a selection rectangle (rubberband). Any item this includes will be selected.

With the keyboard alone you can

• With the arrow keys. move the cursor to the first item to select. Hold down the <Shift> key and move the cursor to the last item to select - all items in between in a linear sequence will be selected or
• Move the cursor to the first item to selected. Hold down the <Ctrl> and <Alt> keys. Move the cursor to the next item to select. Press + or = to select that item. You can also deselect items in the same way by pressing the - key. Or
• You can select all items with the shortcut <Ctrl>A or
• You can invert any existing selection with the shortcut <Ctrl><Shift>A

These methods work pretty much the same in the other views except for rubberbanding you click on the filename or any other column (not the icon) to commence.

I do not know about Mail - I do not use it but some of these methods might work.