Magellan Explorer boosts a wide range of selection methods in order to suit everyone. Most notably, the default selection scheme used differs from the way you select files and folders in most other Windows applications such as e.g. Windows Explorer. While you can configure Magellan Explorer to work just like other Windows applications, please read through the explanations below first to get a better understanding of the alternative selection methods and their powers. This section will also explain how the different selection methods affect drag & drop in Magellan Explorer.
Magellan Explorer selection (Normal selection)
This is the default, and most powerful, selection method in Magellan Explorer. Files are selected/de-selected with the left mouse button by clicking on the them. However, unlike in Windows Explorer, you can select multiple files by simply holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse cursor over the files. It's similar to using a paint program and drawing lines. Whenever the mouse gets within the rectangle of a file or folder that entry is selected. De-selecting works the same, just start with the mouse over an already selected entry and press the left mouse button etc.
Unlike Windows Explorer, you can select files multiple times without the previous selection clearing. This is called sticky selection and enables you to easily select files in several parts of the folder list without the need to touch the keyboard at all.
Since the left mouse button is used exclusively for selection it means that only the right mouse button can be used for drag & drop. This is usually not a problem since dragging with the right mouse button presents you with a drop menu allowing you to choose whether to copy or move, and sometimes other actions as well, the selected files and folders.
Context menus works just like in other application by clicking the right mouse button.
Left mouse button: Sticky selection
Right mouse button: Drag & drop, context menus
Windows Explorer® selection
If you do not feel at home with the Magellan Explorer selection, then try the Explorer style selection instead. This selection method works just like in Windows Explorer, and in Windows applications in general, with a minor difference. Magellan Explorer normally uses it's own custom list view control which uses row selection, meaning a file can be selected even to the right of the displayed filename. Therefore, Explorer style selection with this list view will not allow you to select by dragging square boxes, instead you must rely on the SHIFT key to select a range of files by first clicking on the first file you wish to select followed by the second file, this time by holding SHIFT depressed.
To bypass this limitation it is possible to use the standard Windows list view control instead. In this mode, selection works exactly like in Windows Explorer.
Drag & drop in this mode can be performed using either the left or right mouse button. When using the left button files/folders are either moved or copied depending on your configuration on the Defaults page in the User Interface preferences. When using the right mouse button the behavior is the same as in both the Magellan Explorer selection style above and Windows Explorer.
Left mouse button: Non-sticky selection (sticky with CTRL depressed), drag & drop
Right mouse button: Drag & drop, context menus
Norton Commander™ selection
The final selection mode is designed primarily for users familiar with the Norton Commander or Total Commander (formerly Windows Commander) selection style. It is essentially the same as Magellan Explorer mode except the left and right mouse buttons are switched to perform selection with the right and drag & drop with the left.
Context menus are opened by holding down the right mouse button over an item for a short period.
Left mouse button: Drag & drop
Right mouse button: Sticky selection, context menus (hold button depressed for a short time)
Keyboard selection
Together with either of the three selection modes outlines above you can also use the keyboard. This works the same in all modes. The UP/DOWN arrows as well as the PGUP/PGDN/HOME/END move the cursor box and SPACE toggles selection. Depending on your selection configuration you may need to press the UP/DOWN key for the cursor to initially appear in the list view.
Selection tools
In addition to the methods outlined above you can also make use of the selection tools within Magellan Explorer to quickly select or deselect a range of files and folders. See the Selection tools section for more information.