Shift+Click to select multiple topics as in Gmail

feature
1

Would it be possible to implement Shift+Click to select multiple topics in a topic list? If not, can we make it a feature request?

3 Likes
2

Select them like this?

image

If shift-click is implemented, it might break the standard browser shortcut for opening links in new windows.

3

It will not if you only handle “Shift” when clicking on those checkboxes.

So, the confusion here is that that’s exactly what I’m talking about - I mean holding Shift while clicking on those checkboxes.

1 Like
4

Sorry, I thought you meant “multiple select” by clicking on the topics themselves. I see what you mean now.

5

This makes no sense. Once you expand the selector you can click all the checkboxes you like, there is no need to hold down shift.

6

In any OS, when multiple files are shown in a list, it somehow makes sense to allow Shift + click to select a range of files. Why doesn’t it make sense in a list of topics?

7

It already works this way, without the need to press shift. The shift-click paradigm is usually for selecting things that are not checkboxes; checkboxes conventionally allow multiple selection without shift.

8

It doesn’t. You are confusing Shift vs Command on MacOS (Shift vs Ctrl on Windows).

If you have 5 files:

A
B
C
D
E

Click on file A, then hold Shift, then click on file D - all 4 files from A to D will get selected.

And that’s what the topic title says! Shift + Click

If you try the same with checkboxes in Discourse, it does not work this way.

1 Like
9

:+1: ah, makes sense.

10

I see what you mean, but usually there is a “select all” button in web design, e.g.

image
image557×754 42 KB

So there’s less need for a shift+click when you can Select All via the button… and heck now that I’m testing it, actually shift+click works fine in this scenario for me?

11

Wait, there is quite a difference between “select all” and “shift-select”. “Select all” can select many more items than I need, while shift-select A-B only selects all items starting from A and up to and including B. Like, if I’m trying to select 20 topics from A to B while 100+ are shown, “select all” will select 100 topics while I only need 20 topics to be selected.

Also, testing in Firefox for MacOS, Shift+Select does nothing for me.

Would you consider implementing Shift+Select? Whenever I select multiple topics, I feel like it’s lacking this functionality, and I keep forgetting it does not work this way in Discourse - because it works this way everywhere else, so the intuition is to use it whenever I want to select all items between A and B.

Just wanted to add a note that in Windows, even with checkboxes ON in the file list view, you can still select all files between A and B by clicking FileA+Shift+FileB. Same in MacOS. It’s a UI convention everywhere.

1 Like
12

I thought this was a good feature request when it was first raised, but didn’t have time to try adding it. I had some time today, so I gave it a shot and came up with this draft PR:

Note that we’re very very close to a release, so this won’t be merged in core for at least another few weeks.

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13

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