Selecting multiple documents, Longhorn style

Selecting multiple, non-adjacent documents in the Windows shell on a Tablet PC pretty much requires a keyboard. To select multiple items you usually have to Shift-click or Ctrl-click to select them. Longhorn fixes this problem. In Longhorn, you can optionally have checkboxes appear next to every document in Windows explorer and on the desktop. To select multiple, non-neighboring documents you simply tap on their checkboxes. No keyboard required.

Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like to select one document:

(Notice the preview area in the top left of the window.)

And then to select another file, you simply tap on its checkbox:

(Again, notice the preview area. The preview of the last item check appears on the top of other previews. Cool, isn’t it? In case you’re wondering, it’s just eye-candy. The preview stack is non-functioning. You can’t shuffle through the previews.)

To enable the checkboxes, go to the shell’s View Tab in the Folder Options dialog and check “Use check boxes to select items”:

So are there any tradeoffs with using the checkboxes? A little. They take some getting used to. From a cosmetic standpoint the checkboxes add clutter. Most of the time they aren’t needed, so most of the time they just eat up real estate. Also, when you double click an item, you see the item become checked after the first tap. This makes sense, but it does catch your attention. After awhile I bet I won’t notice this anymore.

The desktop icons will also have checkboxes by them. For me, I wish this was a separate option. Personally, I think the check boxes on the desktop look ugly. Maybe the checkboxes could be hidden until you hover over an icon or made they could be made a little more subtle. Hmm.

My one other lament: I wish it was a feature available on the Tablet PC today. I don’t want to wait until 2005+ 🙂