Selecting files
Overview
Learn about the different ways to select and work with files in FotoStation.
Selecting files
You can easily select many files in FotoStation. This is useful when, for instance, you want to perform batch processing or compare image previews. You can select files in FotoStation in much the same way as in Windows Explorer or the Macintosh Finder. In addition, you can use the Selections menu in the image toolbar to access the most commonly used file selection options.
Tip: If you have a large collection of pictures and need a powerful tool to quickly pick the best ones, try the selection carousel tool.
Basic file selection
To select a single file, simply select it. The frame around the image and the image background are highlighted to indicate that the file is selected. (Note that the color and thumbnail appearance vary depending on your appearance choice in the configuration.) You can, for example, drag the file to an action, or if it is an image, you can select the Crop or Edit button in the toolbar to edit it.
Selecting multiple files
There are several ways to select more than one file in an archive. To select a range of files, select the first file, then press the Shift key while selecting the last file in the range. To select files individually, press the Ctrl key (Command on Mac) while selecting every single file that you wish to select.
Selecting all files in an archive
If you want to select all the files in an archive, you should first make sure that you are viewing all available files. Open the Selections menu in the image toolbar and choose Refresh/Show all options to make sure that all files are shown. Note that if a filter is applied to the archive some files may not be displayed in the image window and therefore won’t be selected.
To select all the files in the archive, use the Select all option (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A / Command–A) in the Selection menu. This will select all available files in the archive. To clear a selection use the Deselect all option (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D / Command–D) in the Selection menu.
The difference between Refresh/Show all and opening the archive: There is a subtle difference between reopening the archive from the side panel and using the Refresh/Show all option. When you select the archive, it opens using the properties set for that archive, including view settings such as view type and sort order. If you have changed the view and/or sort order, using the Refresh/Show all option will not alter these changes.
Working with only your selected files
Having made a selection, you may find it useful to view only the selected files in the image window. To do so, open the Selection menu in the image toolbar and select Show Selected. Alternatively, use the Shift+ Ctrl + A (Cmd + Shift + A on Mac) keyboard shortcut. Now only the selected files are visible in the image window. You can work with these files as normal, copying them to an archive, sending them to an action, or applying other processing as you please. To return to the full archive view, use the Refresh/Show all option as described above. In Windows, you can also select Clear/Show all to return to full archive view.
Inverting a selection
Sometimes it is easier to select the files you don’t want to view or work with than to select the ones you do want to view/work with. This is possible by inverting the selection. Select the files you don’t want to work with, open the Selections menu, and select Invert selection. All the files previously not selected are now highlighted and vice versa. If you want to, you can now choose Show Selected (keyboard shortcut Shift+ Ctrl + I/Cmd + Shift + I ) from the same menu to display the desired files only. Another possibility is to first select undesired files and then choose Show Unselected (keyboard shortcut Alt+D / Shift–Command–U).
Selecting files in full-screen view
Having selected a thumbnail you can press the Space bar key on the keyboard to view that picture in full screen. Now you can browse previews of all files in the archive using the keyboard arrow keys. Select a file using the Space bar - selected pictures will be highlighted with a frame. This provides a convenient way to scroll through the archive and select files as you go.
To return to the grid, press the Escape key. Your selection remains intact and can be managed further.
Selecting files using the preview window
After you have double-clicked a file to open it in the preview window, you can scroll through your archive (you can scroll a maximum of 2000 files in the preview window, regardless of the total number of files actually in the archive) using the Page Up / Page Down keyboard keys. This functionality can also be used for selecting files. Simply press the Spacebar key to select the displayed preview. This way you can scroll through the archive and select files in the process. Note that you can remove a selection by pressing the Spacebar key again.
When you close the preview window, FotoStation will display a notification, as shown above, letting you know that a selection has been made. You can choose to keep the selection you made during the preview scrolling (select Yes ), or you can choose to discard the new selection and keep any previous selection (select No). By selecting Yes you can keep on working with the selected files as described above. For more information on working with previews, see Preview.
Selecting files during a slide show
When running a slide show, you can select files by pressing the Spacebar key. If the slide show has been set up to run in a loop (the Continue from start after last frame checkbox was selected in the Slide show window), you can end it by pressing the Esc key. If you made a selection during the slide show, a notification appears when the slide show finishes.
You can now choose what you would like to do with the selection you made. For more information on how you can set up and use slide shows, see Selecting images during a slide show.