Bug 458091

Summary: Make multiple selection keyboard navigable
Product: [Applications] dolphin Reporter: Natalie Clarius <natalie_clarius>
Component: Selection ModeAssignee: Dolphin Bug Assignee <dolphin-bugs-null>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: wishlist CC: ad.liu.jin, felixernst, kfm-devel, nate
Priority: NOR Keywords: usability
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:

Description Natalie Clarius 2022-08-20 10:14:30 UTC 
SUMMARY
***
I currently see no keyboard navigable way to select multiple elements in Dolphin, as arrow keys will clear the previous selection.
The new selection mode is very convenient for single clickers, and I think it would make sense to adapt the behavior of keys in selection mode similarly: Arrow keys to navigate between elements would highlight them without resetting the previous selection, but also without permanently adding the element to the selection yet so that the next arrow press would just highlight the next element as current, and the enter key would confirm to add the current element to the selection, like single click adds to the current selection rather than opening it when in selection mode.
***

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Enter selection mode
2. Click 1st item
3. Click 3rd item
4. Down arrow key
5. Down arrow key
6. Enter key
7. Down arrow key

OBSERVED RESULT
4. 1st and 3rd item are unselected as 4th item is highlighted
5. 5th item is highlighted, 4th item is unselected
6. 5th item is opened

EXPECTED RESULT
4. 4th item is highlighted, 1st and 3d item remain selected
5. 5th item is highlighted, 4th item is no longer highlighted, 1st and 3d item remain selected
6. 5th item is added to the selection
7. 6th item is highlighted, 1st, 3d and 5th item remain selected
...
Comment 1 Felix Ernst 2022-08-26 10:21:36 UTC 
>I currently see no keyboard navigable way to select multiple elements in Dolphin,
>as arrow keys will clear the previous selection.

Yes, that indeed doesn't seem to be possible currently. Dolphin in general needs some work towards making it more convenient to use with keyboard only.

Your suggestion of adapting selection mode to make this possible sounds good to me!

It adds a bunch of complexity though. I hope whoever is ever implementing this will write the necessary autotests.
Comment 2 Felix Ernst 2022-09-09 09:20:01 UTC 
*** Bug 458900 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***