Selecting Multiple Items in Scrolled Lists

I maintain the Musi-Cal and Mojam websites, both of which include scrolled lists in their event submission forms so people can select keywords that describe the events. I am frequently asked

Skip, why can't I select more than one item from the keyword lists?
The answer always is
You can. You just have to figure out what drugs your Web browser/operating system/Window system vendors were taking the day they implemented scrolled lists.
(Or words to that effect.) In fact, I am asked this so frequently, I sat down one day and created this Web page.

There is no one correct way to select multiple items from <SELECT> fields with the MULTIPLE attribute. Almost every browser/platform combination is different. The table below identifies how to perform multiple selects for a number of different browser/platform combinations. If you know how to perform multiple selects for a browser and platform not listed or discover errors in the table, you can submit information.

Browser/Platform Select One Item Toggle Item Select Range
IBM Web Explorer/OS/2 Warp 3 mouse1 mouse1 n/a
MS Internet Explorer 1.6/Win 3.1 or WFW 3.11 mouse1 ctrl+mouse1 mouse1 then shift+mouse1 or shift+drag or ctrl+drag
Netscape 3.0/Win 95 mouse1 mouse1
Netscape 4.0/Win 3.1 mouse1 ctrl+mouse1
Netscape 2.x/Win 3.1 or WFW 3.11 mouse1 ctrl+mouse1 mouse1 then shift+mouse1 or shift+drag
Mosaic/X mouse1 Ctl+mouse1 Shift+drag1
Netscape/X n/a mouse1 n/a
Grail/X mouse1 Ctl+mouse1 Shift+drag1
Netscape/Mac mouse Command+mouse Shift+drag
Lynx/Unix n/a X n/a
MS Internet Explorer/Mac mouse Command+mouse Command+drag

(Table last updated .)

Submit an Entry

You can submit an item for inclusion in the above table. Just fill out the form below. When entering information, use the convention that mouse button 1 is on the left. For the Macintosh or other systems with just a single mouse button, just use "mouse" to indicate a mouse click or "drag" to indicate dragging the mouse with the button selected. For multiple button mice use "mouseX" or "dragX" to indicate clicking or dragging the mouse with button X selected. If a particular function isn't supported, enter "n/a". If you want to experiment, feel free to use the sample scrolled list.

Browser
Platform
Select One Item
Toggle One Item
Select Range

List to fool around with

Wade McDaniel
wade@mojam.com