How to Click and Drag photos to an existing collection

[monia13]

I'm having such a hard time adding several photos at once to an existing collection. Not sure what I'm doing wrong as I am following the insturctions. First I select all the photos by clicking shift and the 1st photo, then I select the last photo. All photos I want to add are highlighted. But I can't drag all the photos at once. When I try to drag, the 1st photo is only selected. What is are the correct click, drag and drop key strokes to get it right?  Dragging and dropping one photo at the time is just not feasible.

[helen_gossweiler · Accepted solution]

Monia,

I think what you're being caught with is that you have to drag and drop the image from the center of the thumbnail, and not from the gray border.

Beat Gossweiler

Switzerland

[monia13]

Thank you! Your tip was very helpful.

[NOTkenROCKWELL]

Thanks for sharing such a simple suggestion. Solved my 20 minute headache.

[stopproll]

Great suggestion! Solved my problem.

[Laclouts]

I had to log in just to thank you!  It was driving me nuts! 

[Zalister]

Yeah, yet another thank you...  I was going out of my mind there!  Just switched over from Aperture, was on the verge of going nuts when I saw this hint.  Thanks!

[alinerbeaner]

Thank you!! Solved my problem as well.

[rkc62]

Wow, such a simple answer - thank you Beat!

And what a poor UI that people are still finding searching this question 5 years later...

[Rob_Cullen]

And-

If you set a Collection (by a Right-Click) as the "Target Collection"

the Collection shows a small [+] to indicate it is the Target Collection.

Now- Select ONE or MANY images in the library grid and press the key-

All the selected images are added to this (Target) Collection.

So- Select, press B.   easy as!

When creating a NEW Collection you can set it as the 'new' Target Collection in the dialog window..

[whitfield77]

This one is going to save me SO much time!  Thanks!!

[Steven Marx]

I also logged in just to thank you. It's amazing how after all these years Adobe still specializes in horrible, non-intuitive interfaces.

[bhousto90]

It only seems non-intuitive until you take into account all of the other processes the outside frame areas are used for and the size of the thumbnails: Top corners are for flags/missing photos/metadata. Bottom area has color/star ratings/ image rotation.

Using the center of the photo for drag and drop operations prevents many mistaken star rating or flag changes etc. to your selection. (This is most apparent when you have small thumbnails and/or use the compact cell format.)

Much easier to use the center photo than avoiding all of these other library operations. The interface needs to work the same for large/small/compact/expanded thumbnails.

To say you could only use the outside frame or center photo for drag/drop operations when the thumbnail is larger than size X and when thumbnail is smaller you must use the center to prevent mistakes with star ratings etc. would be more confusing.

[mikefike]

Thank you, Beat Gossweiler!  This was driving me crazy as I knew there had to be an alternative to adding the selected when making a new collection or utilizing the target collection mechanic.  Cheers!

[InfoPrincess]

Thank you!!  That did the trick ...

[Rob_Cullen]

And to add- Don't forget the "Painter" Tool.

This little spray-can can do many tricks.

1. Mouse-click to 'Pick up the spray can",

2. choose the action from the drop-down menu,  and

3. 'Spray' away on the thumbnails in grid view.

4. Click back on the grey dot to 'place the spray-can back on the shelf'

In screen-clip I have selected to add any 'sprayed' image to the [Target Collection]  (see above for Target Collection)

[anne elisep41087563]

Thank you! Such a huge help!

[lianne.silano]

Even when I grab from the center of the thumbnail the rest of the photos will deselect. So frustrating!!!

[richardplondon]

You need to finish highlighting all of the needed images FIRST, and then - separately - drag these all together into the Collection.

Analogy: say you have three pencils with a rubber band around them, and then you pick up a fourth, completely different pencil - the first three will just stay behind. But if you've put that fourth pencil inside the same rubber band too, then they will all come along with it.

lianne.silano  wrote

Even when I grab from the center of the thumbnail the rest of the photos will deselect. So frustrating!!!

[lianne.silano]

I did. I highlighted all the photos I wanted, and went back to the 1st highlighted image, and tried to grab that group but they all unselect. I tried moving from the first photo highlighted and the last photo highlighted, they still won't drag as a group.

Sent from my iPhone

[Rob_Cullen]

One point- You must be selecting multiple photos in the Grid View window- Not the filmstrip. (Filmstrip does not work for this)

To add to Richard's explanation above-

To split the procedure into steps-

1. Select multiple photos so they all are highlighted (the lighter shades of grey) (You can Ctrl/click, or Click/Shift+click, etc)

2. Release the mouse button.

3. Slide the mouse cursor over the centre image portion of any one of the selected preview thumbnails

4. Press AND HOLD the left mouse button on the image.

5. While HOLDING the left button- Slide the mouse to drag the photos to their new folder location or the Collection.

6. Release the L-mouse button.

Step 4. is important because if you {click/release/click again} then you do de-select all the other selected photos. You must  Hold & Drag.

[richardplondon]

All I can say is, dragging a group of images together works for me; from Grid or from the Filmstrip in Library, also from the Filmstrip in Develop.

Certainly there used to be a difference whether images were selected in Grid view or in the Filmstrip in Library, but that does not seem to apply any more with latest LR version (I'm on Windows): no matter how and where you have selected images, it is AFAICT now the same result.

But you definitely do need to boldly grab right onto the actual photo part of the thumbnail;

clicking on any other part of a thumbnail deselects all other highlighted images, just as you describe.

[Rob_Cullen]

Thanks Richard-  I stand corrected.

Yes- Drag multiple photos from filmstrip works!

I had not ever tried this until now, and correcting my knowledge.

[prestonl]

So simple - thanks!!

[jefbak]

2022 and this is still not fixed in the UI design. Most people grab the gray border because it is so thick.