As with mouse-based selection, depending on the selection mode that is defined, a particular selection technique can perform either a selection or a deselection. The available keyboard-based techniques are similar to mouse-based selection. This section describes the different types of individual and group selection techniques for keyboard users.
How keyboard-based selection works depends on two modes: normal and add. Normal mode is the keyboard equivalent of the mouse-based select mode. In this mode, various techniques determine the region whose elements can be selected. If there are any elements within the region, those elements are selected and all other elements are deselected. Normal mode has three variants: standard normal mode, text normal mode, and graphics normal mode, which correspond to the type of cursor used.
Add mode is the keyboard equivalent of the mouse-based toggle mode. In this mode, various techniques determine the region whose elements can be toggled. Specified elements have their selection states toggled, and the selection states of all other elements are unaffected, unless selection policies are in effect that change this behavior.
There are two individual selection techniques: point and browse. The normal and add modes affect their operations. The following sections describe point and browse techniques.
To perform the point technique, the user navigates to the element and presses Select, Space, or Ctrl Space on the element. (The exception to using just Space is in text, where a space is inserted instead.) In normal mode, if the cursor is on an element, that element is selected and all other elements are deselected. In add mode, if the cursor is on an element, the state of the element is toggled, and all the other elements are unaffected, unless selection policies specify otherwise.
For more information, see the Point Technique reference page.
To perform the browse technique, the user navigates to the element and selects it. This technique is available only with standard normal mode and text normal mode.
For more information, see the Browse Technique and Selection Modes reference pages.
In normal mode, there are two kinds of group techniques for selecting a group of elements, as follows:
The following sections describe these techniques.
The range swipe and area swipe techniques use keyboard swiping to select a group of contiguous elements. Keyboard swiping applies when the cursor is not within the bounds of the current selection region. With either selection technique, the user presses a sequence of Shift directional keys (swipe) to select or toggle the range or area determined by the initial and final cursor location. These techniques are useful in text.
For more information, see the Area Swipe Technique and Range Swipe Technique reference pages.
Range click and area click techniques select a group of contiguous elements at region endpoints. With either selection technique, the user first presses Select, Space (except in text), or Ctrl Space, then navigates elsewhere via a sequence of directional keys to the desired element. The user then presses Shift Select, Shift Space (except in text) or Ctrl Shift Space to select or toggle the range or area determined by the initial and final cursor location. These techniques are useful in text.
For more information, see the Area Click Technique and Range Click Technique reference pages.
Keyboard-based selection has advanced group techniques functionally equivalent to the mouse-based multilevel and margin techniques. The user can use the range or area swipe techniques with navigation operations to navigate over groups of elements. For example, in text a user can press Ctrl > to navigate one word to the right and then press Shift Ctrl > to select that word.
If the selection scope allows keyboard navigation to margin elements, margin selection from the keyboard can be used.
After an individual or group element has been identified for selection, a user can change the existing selection by either enlarging or shrinking the region of selected elements. The adjustment technique involves using the ADJUST button, which the user can access with Shift Select, Shift Space (except in text) or Ctrl Shift Space. There are two adjustment techniques: adjust click and adjust swipe. These have the same relationship as the range and area techniques described previously.
The adjust click technique either enlarges or reduces a range or area. Either way, the user adjusts the selection by pressing Shift Select, Shift Space (except in text) or Ctrl Shift Space (equivalent to clicking the ADJUST button in the mouse-based adjust technique). If the user uses the touch technique, the adjust click technique adds the element that the cursor is on to the selection.
The various click-style group techniques are the equivalent of initially using the point technique to select an element, then navigating to another point and using the adjust click technique.
For more information, see the Area Adjust Click Technique reference page.
The adjust swipe technique either enlarges or reduces the selected region. This technique applies only when the cursor is within the current swipe selection. When the cursor is not within the current selection, then the selection is considered to be a new selection. The user adjusts the selection by typing a sequence of directional keys to adjust the range and area selections.
This action is the equivalent of pressing the ADJUST button at the initial location, moving the mouse, and releasing the button at the final location.
For more information, see the Area Adjust Swipe Technique reference page.
A keyboard-only user can use standard shortcut keys to select or deselect all elements, as long as the selection scope uses a count policy that allows all elements to be selected. (Refer to the Selection Policies reference page for a description of selection policies.) The user presses Ctrl / to select all the elements within the scope and Ctrl \ to deselect all items in the scope. However, if the cursor is visible, is on a selected element, and normal mode is in use, the element with the cursor on it remains selected.