In
computing
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...
and
user interface engineering, a selection is a list of items on which
user operations will take place. The user typically adds items to the list manually, although the
computer
A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...
may create a selection automatically.
Selections are enacted through combinations of key presses on a
keyboard, with a precision
pointing device
A pointing device is a human interface device that allows a User (computing)#End-user, user to input Three-dimensional space, spatial (i.e., continuous and multi-dimensional) data to a computer. Graphical user interfaces (GUI) and Computer- ...
(
mouse
A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...
or
touchpad
A touchpad or trackpad is a type of pointing device. Its largest component is a tactile sensor: an electronic device with a flat surface, that detects the motion and position of a user's fingers, and translates them to 2D motion, to control a Cu ...
and
cursor,
stylus
A stylus is a writing utensil or tool for scribing or marking into softer materials. Different styluses were used to write in cuneiform by pressing into wet clay, and to scribe or carve into a wax tablet. Very hard styluses are also used to En ...
), or by hand on a
touchscreen
A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...
device. The simultaneous selection of a group of items (either a subset of elements in a list, or discontinuous regions in a text) is called a ''multiple selection''.
Context menu
A context menu (also called contextual, shortcut, and pop up or pop-up menu) is a menu in a graphical user interface (GUI) that appears upon user interaction, such as a right-click mouse operation. A context menu offers a limited set of choic ...
s will usually include actions related to the objects included in the current selection – the selection provides the "context" for the menu.
Types
Uses
*
Text
Text may refer to:
Written word
* Text (literary theory)
In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read", whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of clothi ...
selection is associated with the
cut, copy and paste
Cut, copy, and paste are essential commands of modern human–computer interaction and user interface design. They offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data through a computer's user interface. The ''cut'' command rem ...
operations and done with a
cursor,
caret navigation or
touch
The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bo ...
.
*
Image editing
Image editing encompasses the processes of altering images, whether they are Digital photography, digital photographs, traditional Photographic processing, photo-chemical photographs, or illustrations. Traditional analog image editing is known ...
applications can feature specialized graphical tools for the selection and modification of areas and shapes or to interact with colours, such as the
magic wand selection tool, the
lasso
A lasso or lazo ( or ), also called reata or la reata in Mexico, and in the United States riata or lariat (from Mexican Spanish lasso for roping cattle), is a loop of rope designed as a restraint to be thrown around a target and tightened when ...
selection tool, the
marquee selection (
bounding box), or the
color picker. The border of a selected area in an image is often animated with the
marching ants effect to help the user to distinguish the selection border from the image background.
*
Video editing
Video editing is the post-production and arrangement of video shots. To showcase excellent video editing to the public, video editors must be reasonable and ensure they have a thorough understanding of film, television, and other sorts of videog ...
programs may utilise dynamic controls and advanced
digital effects on the selected region.
*
Files and other interface components can be selected and used with the advent of
GUIs.
*
Selection and manipulation in 3D virtual environments
Range selection
A selection method to facilitate the selection of large amounts of text or items in a long list such as files and folders in
file manager
A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage computer files, files and folder (computing), folders. The most common Computer file#Operations, operations performed on files or groups of files incl ...
s is ''range selection'', sparing the user from clicking or tapping each item individually.
On desktop file managers such as the
Windows Explorer and
Nemo file manager, it can be used by clicking on the first item to be selected, then holding the
⇧ shift key
The Shift key is a modifier key on a alphanumeric keyboard, keyboard, used to type majuscule, capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two Shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row. T ...
while clicking on the last item to be selected. In mobile file managers, it is implemented since early versions of
ES File Explorer, where only two listed items (file or directory) need to be highlighted and a button pressed to select all items in-between.
Ideally, the two list items are navigated to with a draggable
scroll bar, since it can move through long lists faster.
Selection with dragging
The user taps or clicks on the first item, drags upward or downward, and waits for the list to scroll to the last desired item, at which the user releases the pointer or finger. The same applies to text.
Simultaneous editing
Simultaneous editing is a technique in
End-user development research to edit all items in a multiple selection. It allows the user to manipulate all the selected items at once through
direct manipulation. The technique also appears in
data wrangling tools, allowing the user to make the same changes to several records of the same kind in a table.
The term ''simultaneous editing'' is also used to describe
collaborative editing
Collaborative editing is the process of multiple people editing the same document simultaneously. This technique may engage expertise from different disciplines, and potentially improve the quality of documents and increase deals.
Good choices i ...
in
collaborative real-time editors.
Column selection

A column selection is a
text selection feature found in
text editor
A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. An example of such program is "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be used to c ...
s which allows the user to select characters in a grid-like fashion, selecting characters in several lines at the same columns. This is usually initiated by pressing the alt key (instead of the shift key, which creates a continuous selection) to select text when
dragging
Drag or The Drag may refer to:
Places
* Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway
* ''Drág'', the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune in Sălaj County, Romania
* Drag (Austin, Texas), the portion of Guadalupe Street a ...
. Some applications also enable text to be typed in multiple lines at once using this method as a limited form of
simultaneous editing.
[Notepad++ Column Mode Editing](_blank)
/ref>
The feature is known by different names in different applications:
* block selection – LibreOffice Writer
LibreOffice Writer is the free and open-source Word processor program, word processor and desktop publishing component of the LibreOffice suite and is a Fork (software development), fork of OpenOffice.org#Components, OpenOffice.org Writer. Writer ...
, Kate Kate may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname
* Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer
* Lauren Kate (born 1981), American author o ...
* column selection – EditPlus, vi, Emacs
Emacs (), originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor Macros"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, s ...
* non-linear text selection – TextEdit
TextEdit is an open-source software, open-source word processor and text editor, first featured in NeXT's NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. It is now distributed with macOS since Apple Inc.'s acquisition of NeXT, and available as a GNUstep application fo ...
* rectangular selection – jEdit
* column block selection – Microsoft Visual Studio
Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) developed by Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms ...
* column mode editing – Notepad++[
]
Free-form simultaneous editing
The Lapis text editor, Mozilla's Firefox developer tools, and the ''multi edit''New gedit plugin: multi edit
and
demo video
plugin for gedit are examples of the simultaneous editing technique that work on discontinuous regions through direct manipulation. The Lapis editor can also create an automatic multiple selection based on an example item.
See also
* Focus (computing)
In a computing graphical user interface (GUI), a component has focus when it is selected to receive input from the user by an event such as a mouse button click or keypress. Moving the focus away from a specific user interface element is known as a ...
Notes
References
User interface techniques
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