Mouse-click deselection of multiple-selected items

[Paul Peterson]

Is there a good reason the user should not be offered a switch to have the mouse section use standard PC convention.  Multi-select items in a list in any other software, including MS explorer (not IE), then single click one of those files, and all the other files are deselected.  THAT is the standard.  I can't remember the number of times I've lost hours of work in Lightroom because of this HUGE flaw.

Standard scenario:

1. I multi select images to sych settings,
2. I mess for a while with one of the selected images until I realize that I don't want one of the other selected images,
3. I click on one of them,
4. I select 'Delete from hard drive',
5. ALL the files get deleted, including all the hours spend on them.
6. I can salvage from trashcan and re-import, but all my edits are gone forever!  ARRRRG!!!!

Who does one send a software request to?

[ManiacJoe]

In the Library grid view, there are two places to click: the thumbnail and the gray border.

When you click the thumbnail, the selections remain active and the clicked image becomes the "master" selection.

When you click the gray border, the selection resets to that single image.

[Rob_Cullen]

To expand on the answer from ManiacJoe

Quotes copied from my notes-

THE FOUR SHADES OF GREY

1. UN-SELECTED IMAGE BORDERS ARE MID-GREY.
2. THE FIRST IMAGE SELECTED IS THE “PRIMARY” OR “MOST SELECTED” IMAGE WITH A VERY LIGHT GREY BORDER.
3. ANY FURTHER IMAGES SELECTED BY HOLDING [CTRL] OR [COMMAND] OR [SHIFT] KEYS, BECOME THE “SECONDARY” SELECTED FILES WITH A LIGHT GREY BORDER.
4. IMAGES WITH A VIRTUAL COPY BOTH SHOW AS DARK GREY IN LIBRARY GRID MODE.

WHEN MULTIPLE FILES ARE SELECTED-

*CLICKING ON THE IMAGE AREA IN A THUMBNAIL UPGRADES THIS IMAGE TO THE “PRIMARY” SELECTED IMAGE. (aka. “MASTER” IMAGE)AND  THE “SECONDARY” SELECTIONS  (aka “CHILD” SELECTIONS)  REMAIN SELECTED.

*CLICKING ON AN IMAGE THUMBNAIL GREY BORDER- DESELECTS ALL OTHER IMAGES.

[CTRL+A] WILL SELECT  ALL IMAGES.

[CTRL+D] WILL DESELECT ‘ANY SELECTED’ IMAGE (NONE ARE SELECTED).

PRESSING THE [ / ] KEY DESELECTS THE SELECTED IMAGES STARTING FROM THE PRIMARY IMAGE SELECTED AND RESETS THE NEXT IMAGE TO THE “PRIMARY”

[Paul Peterson]

You don't get my point.  I'm not asking how to make selections the way Lightroom does it.  I'm asking Lightroom authors to add a preferences optionwhich will cause Lightroom to behave like every other piece of software out there, when it come to this single-mouse-click-selection/deselection behavior.  Switching gears for one tool in my toolbox without reason is ... well ... unreasonable.

[Rob_Cullen]

I agree with JSM Post#6.

Lightroom does-

behave like every other piece of software out there

The selection of photos in the library grid using the mouse works exactly the same as selection files in the operating system-  with the proviso - that you are clicking the mouse cursor on the Border area (and NOT the image within the border)

So-

Click on one border- selects that ONE image,  de-selecting all others.

Hold down the [Ctrl] key and select multiple 'random' photos as you click on random chosen photo borders.

Click on one border, then hold down [Shift] and click on another border to select all images between the first and last.

With multiple images selected- Hold down the [Ctrl] key and click one photo border to Un-select it.

Press [Ctrl+A] to select ALL photos in view.

Press [Ctrl+D] to De-select ALL photos in view.

Any Right-click menu actions, or using the [Delete] key, should only happen after you have done the selection process- just as you would in the operating system file explorer/Finder.

[Paul Peterson]

No. LR does NOT behave like other software, or else it wouldn't be messing me up so often.  Yes - other software, when multiple files are selected and then you Righ-Mouse-click on one of them, they all stay selected for whatever action you are going to perform.  BUT ... any other software deselects all of the other selected items when you LEFT-mouse click on a single file in that list.  THAT is what messes people up.  And the little 's' at the end of end of 'Remove Photos' is too easily overlooked when you are working on a reasonable assumption the your LM click has long ago deselected any other files - as it would in any other software.

Short of adding a user-switch, it would help if the warning dialog box would significantly highlight the number of images about to be deleted.  Like a huge font size, compared to the rest of the text.

[Rob_Cullen]

any other software deselects all of the other selected items when you LEFT-mouse click on a single file in that list.

Yes.  And so does Lightroom.! it does- no argument.

and I repeat-

with the proviso - that you are clicking the mouse cursor on the Border area (and NOT the image within the border)

[Paul Peterson]

The border click is not an option in OS and other software.  Therefore it makes more sense to have the non-conventional action (non-deselecting) be linked to the non-conventional action (border click).  Switch the actions so that LM-click on the image deselects other images, and a LM-click on the boarder does not deselect the other images.  This is what I'm currently suggesting to Adobe.

[Rob_Cullen]

Yes I do see your point for this suggestion, but I do not see Adobe changing it now after it has been the Lr convention since v1.

However it would change the drag-and-drop function (Library > Collections, move photos, etc) for every Lr user, and that would be an annoying change for the millions of users.  Selecting methods by always using the border has become 'second nature' to me now.

[johnrellis]

Who does one send a software request to?

Adobe wants feature requests and bug reports posted to the official Adobe feedback forum: Photoshop Family Customer Community . (This forum is primarily a user-to-user forum in which Adobe product developers rarely participate.)

[johnrellis]

Multi-select items in a list in any other software, including MS explorer (not IE), then single click one of those files, and all the other files are deselected.

If you post your suggestion, you might include your thoughts on how to handle (or replace) LR's selection model, in which multiple photos are selected and one photo is "most selected".  This selection model is used in many places in LR, e.g. when syncing settings from one photo to other photos.

[Just Shoot Me]

This is clearly user Error. When you Right click on an image, with multiple images selected, the wording in the pop up menu is "Remove Photos" (NOTE the S at the end of PhotoS). Then in the dialog box that comes up it clearly states the number of images, Photos, to be removed and or deleted from Disk. If you actually took the time to read the menu selection and then the dialog box you can click the Cancel button.

If you had held down the Ctrl key, Windows (Not sure which key on a Mac), when left clicking on the images you wanted to Delete to Deselect it and then right clicked on it you would remove/delete just that one image.

The reason LR isn't like a File manager is because it is not a File Manager. If I have multiple images selected and want to display one of them in the loupe view but don't want to Deselect all the other images all I have to do is left click on that image then go to the loupe view to enlarge it. That is the reason LR doesn't work like Windows File Explorer.