Many programs allow you to select multiple files, so you may already know the two shortcuts for how to quickly do that. But just in case you don't, we'll go over it in this lesson. These shortcuts will not only work for selecting multiple photos and files, but also for selecting other kinds of items, like more than one layer in the Layers panel, or more than one brush in the Brush Preset panel. When we get to those more advanced topics, I'll review what I'm about to tell you, but just know that these shortcuts are part of the bigger picture for becoming an expert in Photoshop Elements.

I'll start by clicking open and navigating to the class photos for this lesson. As you may recall, I placed my practice photos in Pictures, where I created a folder called QwikLearn Photoshop Elements to put all my downloads from this class. Here is the first class module and the practice files. I'll open the folder for lesson 10 called Select Files. If you're following along, you can choose to navigate to the same folder, or you can navigate to photos of your own. Click on one file to select it. I'll click on chipmonk.

To select another file, press and hold the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on a Mac as you click on another file. I'll click on sheep. As you can see Ctrl clicking in Windows or Command clicking on a Mac allows you to select a single additional file anywhere in your list of files in that folder. The file doesn't have to be contiguous, meaning it doesn't have to be next to the first file you clicked on. I'll Ctrl or Command click on horse.jpg and now I have three files selected.

Use the same command to deselect a single file. Ctrl click in Windows or Command click on a Mac on the selected file, and that will be selected. To quickly deselect all selected files click on a blank area of your window. To select a row of files I'll use a list view here on the Mac instead of the picture view. Click on the first file to select it and shift click on the last file in the row and that selects all the files in between.

In Windows, you can use the shift key to select multiple thumbnails in the thumbnail view. But on a Mac selecting with the Shift key only works in one of the list views. Once you selected a row of thumbnails, you can control click in Windows or Command click on a Mac on an individual file to de-select it.

As I said before, we'll use these same shortcuts in a variety of ways in future lessons. So make sure you get comfortable using these shortcuts. Here's one more shortcut for selecting files that works in some cases, mostly on your computer desktop or in a navigational window like this one. Click on a blank spot in the folder and click and drag over the files you want to select. When you're ready to open your files, click open or double click on one of the selected files. So there you have several methods for selecting multiple files in Photoshop Elements.