# Select several items at once

> Drag a box over the canvas, Shift-click items, or Shift-click a range inside a board, then use the buttons that appear above the selection to convert, tidy, move, download or set status for all of them.

Category: Canvas
Web page: https://www.pactto.com/help/select-multiple-items
All guides: https://www.pactto.com/help.md

## Work with several items together

You can select many items and move, resize or act on them as one.

### Ways to select more than one item

1. With **Select** (V) active, drag a box across the canvas. Everything the box touches gets selected.
   - If you start the box outside any board, boards it touches are selected as a whole.
   - If you start the box inside a board, you select the items inside that board.
2. Hold **Shift** and click items to add them to (or remove them from) the selection.
3. Inside a board: click one file, then **Shift**-click another file in the same board. Every file between the two (in the board's order) gets selected.
4. Press **Cmd/Ctrl + A** to select everything.

Once selected, drag any selected item to move the whole group, or drag a corner of the selection box to resize them together.

### Buttons that appear above a selection

When two or more items are selected, a small bar appears above the selection. What it shows depends on where the items are.

**Items on the open canvas (not inside a board):**
- **Convert to Board**: puts the selected items into a new board, keeping their positions. Needs 2 or more items.
- **Tidy up**: lines up the items evenly. Needs 3 or more items that are not locked.

**Files inside the same board:**
- **Set status**: gives every selected file the same review status.
- **Move to board**: moves the files to another board. If there is none, the list says **No other boards**.
- **Download**: downloads every selected file that can be downloaded, one after the other.

**Convert to Board** and **Tidy up** are also in the right-click menu.

### Who can do this

- Everyone can select items.
- Moving, resizing, **Convert to Board**, **Tidy up**, **Move to board** and **Download** need Owner or Can edit.
- **Set status** is available to Owner, Can edit and Can review.

Good to know:
- When you add two or more files at once, they are laid out in a grid and left selected, so you can move them or turn them into a board right away.
- Each of these actions can be undone with **Cmd/Ctrl + Z**.
- The bar is hidden while you are drawing, typing or dragging; it comes back when you stop.

## Related guides

- [Select, move, resize, duplicate and delete items on the canvas](https://www.pactto.com/help/select-move-resize.md): Use the Select tool (V) to click an item, then drag it to move, drag its corners to resize, and use the right-click menu or shortcuts to copy, duplicate, group, lock, reorder or delete it.
- [What does each tool in the canvas toolbar do?](https://www.pactto.com/help/canvas-toolbar.md): The toolbar in the top bar of the room holds the canvas tools (Pan, Select, Laser, Comment, Draw, Text, shapes, Sticky note, Doc, Table, Board and Add asset), and each one has a single-key shortcut.
- [Create a board and add items to it](https://www.pactto.com/help/boards.md): A board is a named container on the room canvas that groups items; draw one with the Board tool (B) or select items and choose Convert to Board, then drag or drop items into it.
- [Set a review status on an item](https://www.pactto.com/help/review-status.md): Select a video, image, PDF, Pactto Doc, or board and pick a status (Draft, In progress, Needs review, Needs changes, Approved, or your own) from the status menu in its title bar.
- [Where do new files appear on the canvas, and at what size?](https://www.pactto.com/help/asset-placement-and-size.md): New images and videos are placed in a free spot near the middle of your view without covering other items, shrunk to fit within 800 by 480 pixels if they are larger, and the view moves to show them.
- [Undo or redo a change on the canvas](https://www.pactto.com/help/undo-redo.md): Press Cmd/Ctrl + Z to undo your last change on the canvas and Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z to redo it.