Left mouse button selection mode and multiple files selected

[DVV]

When the Mouse selection mode is set to Left mouse button and there are multiple files selected in the file panels, a single click of a left mouse button removes all the selection from all the previously selected files.
Is the a custom option (or trick) to preserve the selection in the file panel when a left mouse button is clicked?

[Dalai]

This can be done the same way as in other Windows dialogs: press Ctrl while clicking the left mouse button to preserve the existing selection and just change (extend or reduce) the selection of the object you clicked on.

Holding the Shift key makes the selection contiguous while Ctrl allows to select non-contiguous blocks of objects.

Regards
Dalai

[ghisler(Author)]

Additionally you can click on the icons to just toggle the select of that specific file/folder and keep all the other selections.

[DVV]

Thank you, this works.
So the Mouse selection mode is actually not only about Left Mouse Button (LMB) and Right Mouse Button (RMB), it also includes different behavior.
Let me explain my use case to illustrate the difficulties I'm having with the Mouse selection mode.
I was using the option Use right mouse button (as in NC) - context menu after 1 second many years. The behavior with regards to selected files is perfect for me: the selected files remain selected when I click anywhere with either a LMB or RMB. However, I realized that the most usages of RMB today are connected to showing the context menu (achieved with a long RMB click during 1 second) rather than to selecting files.
So I've decided to get rid of long RMB clicks by selecting the Left mouse button (Windows standard). This, however, additionally changed the behavior to remove all the selection from files when either LMB or RMB is pressed. This is the exact behavior of Windows Explorer which irritates me and let me explain you why. Let's consider the following situation:
1) We have a folder with a lot of files.
2) We are looking through the files in this folder and mark files one by one. To do this, we sometimes scroll the view (to see the next files) and we should always remember to hold Ctrl while clicking a new file to be selected.
3) Let's imagine we've already selected dozens different files in the folder. At this point, any incautious mouse click (e.g. unintentional mouse click right after scrolling or just a click when you forgot to hold the Ctrl key) removes all the selection from all the files, and you should do everything from the beginning!
This situation is definitely what I do not want. In the same time, I'd like to have an ability to show a context menu by a short RMB click instead of a long RMB click. Is this behavior possible?

[Hacker]

DVV,
Not directly, but you could keep RMB selection mode and e.g. remap the middle mouse button to call the context menu using an external tool like AutoHotkey. This script would do that:

Code: Select all

#IfWinActive, ahk_class TTOTAL_CMD
MButton::AppsKey

HTH
Roman

[petermad]

2DVV
I use these settings in the [Configuration] section of my wincmd.ini file

Code: Select all

UseRightButton=1
ContextProgress=0
PopupDelay=250

Then I hardly notice the delay, but still have the benefit of the right-click selection.

[Dalai]

3) Let's imagine we've already selected dozens different files in the folder. At this point, any incautious mouse click (e.g. unintentional mouse click right after scrolling or just a click when you forgot to hold the Ctrl key) removes all the selection from all the files [...]

This is exactly how Explorer and all other common Windows dialogs (Open, Save etc.) behave. Hence, it's to be expected when a mouse selection mode called "Windows standard" is set in TC.

BTW, you can call the context menu without any delay with Shift+F10, regardless of which mouse selection mode is set.

Regards
Dalai

[DVV]

Pretty nice solutions are here, thank you!
So far I've ended up with:
1. The Mouse selection mode remains Use right mouse button (as in NC) to not lose the previous selection when LMB or RMB is clicked.
2. Either Peter's solution with wincmd.ini

Code: Select all

PopupDelay=200

or Hacker's solution with AutoHotkey's script can be used.
Here is a script I've created for AutoHotKey 2:

Code: Select all

#HotIf WinActive("ahk_class TTOTAL_CMD")
RButton::
{
  MouseClick "Left"
  Send "+{F10}"
}

[Hacker]

DVV,

Code: Select all

MouseClick "Left"

Ahh, right, I am using SingleClickStart, apologies.

Roman