Selecting multiple icons in Finder using the keyboard?

Question

Is there a way to select icons (using the keyboard) that aren't directly touching? In Windows, I'd press Ctrl+Down, but it doesn't work in the Finder view. I've tried all the usual keyboard shortcuts, but it doesn't seem to work. I can multi-select other icons just fine, but I can't multi-select these two.

The picture explains it better than I could. The icons in this folder are aligned to the grid.

Answer 1

You could use cmd ⌘ + 2 to change to the list view and then just use Shift + Down.

Answer 2

I thought Shift + Down should work. I tried and the results were, let us say, special:

When your view is sorted by Name, Shift + Down does not go the last item.

If your view is not sorted, (Sort By: None), then Shift + Down selecs the last item as well.

See this screencast. (This is my first screencast, so not a very good one)

Answer 3

The answer, it turns out, is fairly unintuitive.

1. Select the last item (the PSD).
2. Press Shift + Up.
3. Hold Shift and press Right repeatedly until you get the selection you want.

Answer 4

Selecting multiple icons with the keyboard in Finder's Icons View is very limited. Here's a few options:

cmd+click: This definitely works in Icons View, but you have to use the mouse to click.

shift+arrows: This only works properly in a single row or a single column. If you start trying to use the arrow keys to select more than a single row or column, you'll get inconsistent and strange results.

The only real solution, unfortunately, is to switch to List View to do the multiple selection.

Some people mentioned that Icons View keyboard selection works when not sorted, but my testing on Sierra 10.12.6 found that it didn't matter whether Icons View was sorted or not, keyboard selection didn't work beyond a single row/column.