Tuning Your Selections

Even after a search, you may want to process only some of the files in a browser window. If the files you want to process can't be isolated by their metadata, then you have to perform old-fashioned manual selection. Bridge has some ways to help you out here, too.

To begin with, the same methods you use to select multiple objects in other programs also work in Bridge. In Bridge, you can select a continuous range of files by clicking the first file you want to select and Shift-clicking the last file you want to select. You can add more individual files to a selection by Command-clicking/Ctrl-clicking them.

In addition, Bridge contains commands that can sometime be shortcuts to the selections you want. For example, if you want to select all files in a browser window except three, your first thought might be to choose Edit > Select All and then manually deselect the three files with the Command/Ctrl key. Nothing wrong with that, but in some cases you may find it easier to first select the three files you want to exclude, and then choose Edit > Invert Selection (Figure 7.6). The previously selected files become deselected, and the previously unselected files become selected. Table 7.1 summarizes making selections in Bridge.

Figure 7.6. Original selection before (left) and after (right) choosing Edit > Invert Selection.

Table 7.1. Selection Techniques in a Bridge Browser Window

To...	...do this
Select all files	Choose Edit > Select All
Deselect all files	Choose Edit > Deselect All
Exchange selected and deselected files	Choose Edit > Invert Selection
Select a continuous range of files	Click the first file, then Shift-click the last file
Select a discontinuous range of files	Click the first file, then Command/Ctrl-click each file you want to add
Make a rectangular selection	Drag a selection rectangle around the thumbnails
Select all files containing labels	Choose Edit > Select Labeled
Select all files without labels	Choose Edit > Select Unlabeled