How to Select all on Mac? Complete Guide [2022]

When using an Apple computer, knowing how to select all on Mac is critical to your productivity and efficiency levels. All of your items can get chosen to perform any task simultaneously; This will help you get things done faster and more efficiently. It’s simple to pick a single file – click it — but choosing many files may be difficult. Fortunately, there are a few simple keyboard shortcuts that may be useful in this circumstance. You can select one or more files at a time using various methods.

Selecting All Items On Mac

In Windows, we all know how to pick multiple files or directories continuously or discontinuously. This shortcut is somewhat different on a Mac. Select all on Mac use the same principles applied to other main desktop operating systems such as Windows. The only difference is that the Command key gets used to picking a different type of selection from the previous option. Choosing files can be confusing because of just one tiny change. The rest of the process is the same as it would be on Windows or Linux.

When selecting files, they might be continuous or not, i.e., they can be in separate rows at various places in the Finder window. Many people are confused because they don’t fully grasp how to pick file groups, so we will try to clear that up by focusing on the key ways to select file groups.

More on Jointedrods: How to free up space on Apple watch

How Can I Choose Many Files That Are Near To One Other?

On a Mac, there are two methods for determining several nearby files.

Click and drag

Please select a file by clicking on it and then drag the mouse down without releasing it.

Note: Working with multiple files can be easy with the Finder status bar enabled at all times because it shows a live count of the total number of documents specified.

Shift-click

Press Shift to select the first item from the List view, then select the last item. There will be a selection of all the files in between. Multiple files can be deselected by Command-clicking each one.

Both of these techniques work with files listed consecutively (that is, next to each other in any view), but they don’t work if you want to pick films that aren’t grouped. When this happens, you should use Command+Click

How To Select Multiple Separate Files

Random or non-contiguous file selection is a bit of a pain because it necessitates using the keyboard and the trackpad. You can’t rely on just one person to choose files in the wrong sequence. You can use Command + Click to pick several files in a Finder view that aren’t side-by-side; This can be any other file, one file at the top of a list view, two additional files at the bottom, or anything in between.

Start by selecting your first file, and then hold Command while selecting your other files. Hold the Command key, drag over contiguous files to pick them, and release the mouse button to continue choosing disjointed files.  To deselect a file, press down the Command key and click it. Sometimes it’s faster to select a collection of files and then use the Command-select technique to remove the ones you don’t want.

How To Select All On Mac

You may wish to select all of the files in the Finder Window at times. This approach is known as Select All. There are two methods to choose everything on Mac:

Using Shortcuts On The Keyboard

Make a window active by clicking on it, then press Command+A.

Use the Menu Bar 

On your Mac, navigate to the area where you wish to choose all objects. To get the Select All option, go to the top menu bar and select Edit or View; you can also left-click on an empty spot, drag the mouse to construct a box containing all of the items and then let go; This will pick the objects in the current window.

All of the files you’ve chosen will turn blue. If you wish to remove some files from your selection, Command-click the file you want to remove. However, if you’re going to pick all files in the same Windows or Folder, this is the most common method for selecting several files, and many individuals utilize it. This approach will undoubtedly simplify and aid you in finishing a significant task of file selection.

It is how you can select all on  Mac. Now you must decide which method works for you.

What To Do After Selecting All Items On Mac

Here are some actions you can take with several files chosen:

• By dragging and dropping files into the trash can, you can delete them or move them to a new spot, and they’ll be there.
• Preview files by holding down the Spacebar and using the arrow keys.
• Hold the Option key to copy them to a new folder when dragging the files.

Bottom Line

Knowing how to select all on Mac may be pretty helpful whether you’re attempting to clean up your desktop, relocate your photos, or organize your digital files. You can deal with everything at once rather than dealing with separate files and wasting time. We discovered that Command + A was the easiest way to select all objects in the current window. 

Hopefully, this guide has assisted you in combining the potential of keyboard shortcuts and becoming a more productive Mac user. if you need additional support, then please visit macOS User Guide