Compared to mobile, touchscreen devices like iPhone and iPad, the Mac is a lot more flexible with regard to selecting multiple items. The utility of the mouse enables clicking and dragging over a group of files to select many at once. In contrast, iOS provides limited means to multi-select.

Additionally, the Shift and Command keys make it even easier to capture groups of contiguous items or disparate, noncontiguous items, respectively. Read on to learn how.

Shift to Select Contiguous

To select a group of items that are all next to each other in a list, such as this Finder window, click the item at one end of the group, hold the Shift key, and then click the item at the other end of the desired group.

Command to Select Noncontiguous

To select a group of items that are not in series, such as this collection of pictures, hold the Command key when clicking subsequent items. You don’t need to hold Command continuously while scrolling through the list; just before clicking any item you want to add to the group.

Do Both for Complex Groups

Suppose you want to select one or more groups of contiguous items and also some additional individuals. You can do this by using both Shift and Command in the appropriate sequence.

These keys enable you to select one or more items based on the previous item you clicked. For example, take a look at my order of operations to select this group of Applications (if you can read the chicken scratch that became of my annotations).

New with Selection

Now, once you’ve selected a group of items, what are you going to do with them? One action is to create a container to hold the items you selected. In the Finder, this would be a folder. In Photos, an album.

In various applications, you’ll find a New ___ with Selection command near the top of the File menu. Thus, if you already know which items you want to put such a container, you can start by selecting the desired contents and then create the container around them.

Multi-selecting is a great way to increase efficiency compared to acting on one item at a time. Just think about how much easier it is to move, rename, or delete a bunch of things at once.

There are so many possibilities for group actions and also keyboard shortcuts that make these actions even faster. Please reach out if you wish to explore this territory further and learn new ways to make your computing more efficient and flexible.