# ways to make "select all" quicker
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [August 16, 2009, 10:57am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785 "2009-08-16T10:57:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Statick](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Statick)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2009, 10:57am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/1 "2009-08-16T10:57:33Z")
hi, i've been using mp3tag for about a year now, and it's a fantastic piece of software.
one of the main features i like is how quickly i can achieve most things - i've used other tag software before and it's always been quite awkward to get things done, and when you have many MP3s, speed is important!
i've noticed that my workflow is being slowed down by the "select all" function so i have a simple suggestion that i hope would improve things.
i'm usually working on my MP3s one album at a time. so, like today where i'm updating some album covers, my workflow will be "open folder", "select all", "add cover art", "save".
it's getting really tedious to have to click the "edit" menu and then click the "select all" option every single time i open an album. most of the other functions i need can be made very speedy with the action group macros, and the fact that virtually every function i need is a button on the toolbar - but not this one. it's either two clicks with a mouse movement between, or it's "ctrl-A" which also requires me to move my hand across to the keyboard. doing this 5000 times over gets very repetetive!
i have two suggestions :
firstly, a "select all" button on the toolbar, preferably near to the "open folder" button, would at least make this function quicker.
however, i think it would make sense to be able to automatically select something as soon as the folder is opened. after all, you can't actually do anything until something is selected - so at the moment, there's a select function being imposed on the workflow there. we HAVE to select something after opening a folder, before we can do anything else - and since this has to happen, it should happen automatically.
so, i propose an option in the preferences : "automatically select XXXX upon opening folder", where XXXX can be chosen between "none", "first" and "all". personally i would choose "all" and leave it that way, but at least if it's an option then if someone doesn't like it they don't have to have it.
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2009, 7:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/2 "2009-08-17T07:48:11Z")
I support this feature request.
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2009, 8:11am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/3 "2009-08-17T08:11:32Z")
> [@Statick](#):
>
> ... i've noticed that my workflow is being slowed down by the "select all" function so i have a simple suggestion that i hope would improve things.
> i'm usually working on my MP3s one album at a time. so, like today where i'm updating some album covers, my workflow will be "open folder", "select all", "add cover art", "save".
> it's getting really tedious to have to click the "edit" menu and then click the "select all" option every single time i open an album. most of the other functions i need can be made very speedy with the action group macros, and the fact that virtually every function i need is a button on the toolbar - but not this one. it's either two clicks with a mouse movement between, or it's "ctrl-A" which also requires me to move my hand across to the keyboard. doing this 5000 times over gets very repetetive! ...
You may select (all) files in the listview using the mouse.
Position the mouse down under the tracklist in the free area, press mouse-left-button and open a rectangle ribbon by dragging the mouse cursor from down right corner to upper left corner over the files you want to select.
It's just one mouse click!
DD.20090817.1211.CEST
---
### Author:  [@Statick](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Statick)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/4 "2009-08-17T22:10:56Z")
> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> You may select (all) files in the listview using the mouse.
> Position the mouse down under the tracklist in the free area, press mouse-left-button and open a rectangle ribbon by dragging the mouse cursor from down right corner to upper left corner over the files you want to select.
> It's just one mouse click!
>
> DD.20090817.1211.CEST
oh yeh - i hadn't thought of that. it's certainly quicker than using the edit menu, and i wish i'd realized this before i spent nearly a whole day processing MP3 tags... thanks though!
still, my feature request for an "automatically select all/first/none" option remains!
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### Author:  [@egd](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/egd)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/5 "2009-08-22T04:58:01Z")
> [@Statick](#):
>
> oh yeh - i hadn't thought of that. it's certainly quicker than using the edit menu, and i wish i'd realized this before i spent nearly a whole day processing MP3 tags... thanks though!
>
> still, my feature request for an "automatically select all/first/none" option remains!
I've requested a similar feature some time ago - basically the ability to hit a hotkey to select all tracks within the same folder as the currently selected file(s). mp3tag is great software and would be even better with some usability tweaks like this. It would be nice to see some focus on this even if at the expense of supporting yet another audio format or itunes tag.
Using the mouse is an option, but you have to position the cursor in the right spot for the action to happen and it's just as susceptible to over/undershooting as the keyboard method. A hotkey is an elegant solution and can even be made to select all files in the next folder when pressed a second time.
Here's the thread covering my request: [/t/8577/1](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/8577/1)
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### Author:  [@JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/JJ_Johnson)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/6 "2009-08-23T07:22:54Z")
You can't do Ctrl+A with just one hand? (Although it would be impossible if you mouse with your left hand, and I imagine on some keyboards). In any case, I've been requesting this for a long time.
1. An option to "select all" files when the program is opened or when a new folder location is loaded.
and
1. Buttons on the button bar to do "select all" and "invert selection".
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### Author:  [@moley6knipe](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/moley6knipe)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2009, 7:28am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/7 "2009-08-23T07:28:54Z")
> [@JJ Johnson](#):
>
> 1. An option to "select all" files when the program is opened or when a new folder location is loaded
+1 for that. I only ever use mp3tag by right-clicking the relevant folder, so in my case I _always_
want all files selected.
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### Author:  [@egd](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/egd)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2009, 8:33am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/8 "2009-08-23T08:33:14Z")
> [@moley6knipe](#):
>
> +1 for that. I only ever use mp3tag by right-clicking the relevant folder, so in my case I _always_
> want all files selected.
I rarely load a single folder, but rather multiple folders or a directory tree, so CTRL-A doesn't serve me well at all, I need a hotkey to select all files in the currently selected subdir for processing and if they're already selected and I hit the hotkey, select all files in the next folder based on the folder path sort.
+1 for both types of behaviours, depending on what you load on firing up mp3tag.
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### Author:  [@Pegleg](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Pegleg)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2009, 9:10am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/9 "2009-08-26T09:10:41Z")
I nearly always want the select all action on my files.
It would be nice to have an option on the general tab 'open all files selected' please
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2009, 10:16am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/10 "2009-08-26T10:16:10Z")
I do not like "pre-selection" as default, because it is too dangerous and too easy to damage all selected files immediately and completely.
But I can live with such a function when select-on-open is realized as an user configurable option.
DD.20090826.1416.CEST
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### Author:  [@chrisjj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrisjj)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ways-to-make-select-all-quicker/8785/11 "2009-09-13T19:21:13Z")
> Position the mouse down under the tracklist in the free area, press mouse-left-button and open a
> rectangle ribbon by dragging the mouse cursor from down right corner to upper left corner over
> the files you want to select.
> It's just one mouse click!
... provided some free area is in view 🙂
If you have many tracks or little screen height, you have to scroll first. But if you have some free area at the right, you can start your drag at the top right and at least perform the scroll in that same action.