Hi Cody, To select non contiguous files in Finder, or any other list (e.g. in iTunes, to assemble a playlist), you turn cursor tracking off (VO-Shift-F3), then navigate to any item you want, and press VO-Command-Space to add these to your selection. At any time, you can check the items that are in your selection with VO-F6. VO-Command-Space is a toggle select/unselect action, so if you checked selected items with VO-F6 and discovered that you included an item you didn't want, and want to deselect it, you can navigate with VO-Up arrow or VO-Down arrow to the item in question and do another VO-Command-Space. Then check with VO-F6 to make sure the item it gone. When you are done with your selection, remember to turn cursor tracking back on with another VO-Shift-F3. This is the most common mistake, and you will find the experience very frustrating if you forget this step, since VoiceOver won't behave the way you expect. Then you can perform whatever next action you want, which could be using Command-C to copy items, creating a new playlist from selection in iTunes with Command-Shift-N, or anything else.
So here are step by step instructions to select non-contiguous items: 1. Navigate to the first item in your list 2. Press VO-Shift-F3 to turn off Cursor Tracking 3. Navigate to the next item then press VO-Command-Space bar 4. Repeat step 3 until everything you wish to select has been selected 5. Don't forget to turn Cursor Tracking back on with VO-Shift-F3 Some additional pointers: 1. As mentioned earlier, selection with VO-Command-Space is a toggle action: when applied to items that are already selected, it will deselect them, and VoiceOver will announce this. 2. You can mix item by item selection (described above) with selecting a contiguous block of items by holding down the shift key and pressing your down arrow key. So if you want to select the first ten items in a list, but leave off items 5 and 7, for example, one way to do this is to hold down the shift key as you arrow down nine times. VoiceOver will announce as each item is added to your selection. However, because cursor tracking has been turned off in step 2, your VoiceOver cursor will still be at item 1. So you could VO-Down arrow to the few items you don't want selected -- items 5 and 7 in the earlier example -- and deselect them with VO-Command-Space. This method works well when most of your selections are in large blocks, or are in large blocks except for a few items. The only confusing point is that while pressing Shift+Down arrow extends the selected region, your VoiceOver cursor position doesn't move because of turning cursor tracking off. You still need to use VO-Down Arrow or VO-Up Arrow to move your VoiceOver cursor. But suppose you want to select everything in a list except for two or three entries near the end of the list. It can be a lot more efficient to select all with Command-A, then move to the last element in a list with VO-Fn-Shift-Right Arrow (or VO-Shift-End on a full keyboard -- I use a laptop). Then, VO-Up arrow to the few items you want to deselect and VO-Command-Space to remove them from the list. 3. Remember that you can always check your selection with VO-F6. 4. Any time you want to deselect all entries, just press the Escape key. 5. If you're in a long list, it's helpful to lock your VoiceOver keys with VO-semi-colon. Then, you navigate the list by pressing the up and down arrow keys, and pressing Command-Space bar to select (or deselect). You can't use the block selection technique described in tip 2, but you can start by doing a select all (Command-A), then locking your VoiceOver keys, and arrowing up or down and using Command-Space bar to deselect. You can also move to the top or bottom of the list with Fn-Shift-Left or Right arrow (or Shift-Home and Shift-End on a full keyboard). And you can check your selection by pressing the F6 key. Remember to unlock your VoiceOver keys by pressing semi-colon. 6. Remember to turn on Cursor tracking with VO-Shift-F3 again when you're done. If you still have your VoiceOver keys locked, this is Shift-F3. I feel as though I should repeat this reminder two or three more times, because it's really the thing that most people forget. HTH. There are lots of posts about this in the archives, including a description of how to do this to add to playlists in "Tips on Non-Contiguous Selection": http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg05301.html Cheers, Esther On Aug 29, 2011, at 06:42, Cody wrote: > Hey guys, > > How do you select non contiguous files in the finder? As in I may want to > select the first file in the finder and then select another file 5 files down > the list. In Windows i know you cna do this buy holding down control while > you use the arrow keys and then press space on all the files you want. I know > there is a way to do this in mac but I just don't know how. > > Thanks, > Cody -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
