When the user presses the left, or select button, Intuition examines the
state of the system and the position of the pointer. This information is
used to decide whether or not the user is trying to select some object,
operation, or option. For example, the user positions the pointer over a
gadget and then presses the left button to select that gadget.
Alternatively, the user can position the pointer over a window and press
the select button to activate the window. The pointer is said to be over
an object when the pointer's hot spot is positioned within the selection
region of the object.
A number of other common techniques involving the select button are
available. They include:
Drag Select
Multiple objects or an extended area may be selected by dragging the
mouse over a range with the select button held down. For instance,
in Release 2, multiple icons can be selected in a Workbench window by
pressing the select button while the pointer is over the background
of the window (not an icon or a system gadget) and then moving the
mouse with the select button held down. A selection rectangle will
be displayed and all icons within the rectangle will be selected.
Similarly, the user may highlight blocks of text in a console window
by pressing the select button over the first desired character and
dragging the mouse to the last desired character while holding the
button down.
Multi-Select or Shift Select
Another way to select multiple objects or an extended area is through
the shift select technique. First, select the first member of the
group of objects in the normal way. Additional objects can be added
to the group by holding down the Shift key while the select button is
pressed. This technique works with Workbench icons, where icons may
be added one-at-a-time to the list of selected icons; and with text
in a console window, where the selected text is extended to include
the new position. Note that text need not operate this way, and the
application may allow multiple discrete blocks to be selected at any
given time.
Cancel Drag Operation
Both drag select and the dragging of individual objects may often be
canceled by pressing the right mouse button before completing the
drag operation (before releasing the select button). Examples of
this include window dragging and sizing, and positioning of Workbench
icons.
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