Selection (user interface)

In user interface engineering, a selection is a list of items on which user operations will take place. The user typically adds items to the list manually, although the computer may create a selection automatically. This simultaneous selection of a group of items is called a multiple selection.

• Text selection is strongly associated with the cut, copy and paste operations.
• Image editing applications have complex tools for the selection of areas of an image.
• Files and other interface components can be selected started with the advent of GUIs.

Context menus will usually include actions related to the objects included in the current selection - the selection provides the "context" for the menu.

Simultaneous editing is a technique in End-user development research to edit all items in a multiple selection. It allows the user to manipulate all the selected items at once through direct manipulation. The Lapis text editor and the multi edit plugin for gedit are examples of this technique. The Lapis editor can also create an automatic multiple selection based on an example item.

The term simultaneous editing is also used to describe collaborative editing in collaborative real-time editors.