The "Select by name" menu item lets you select only some of the objects in a currently open folder view, while OS/2 per default only knows menu items for selecting all or none of the objects in a folder.

Selecting objects is then done in a new dialog window, where you may enter a file specification and then press "Select" or "Deselect".

The entry field expects a file specification similar to those on an OS/2 command line, i.e. you may use the "*" and "?" wildcards to select several files. For example, if you enter "*.txt" here, all files ending in "*.txt" will be selected after pressing "Select"; reversely, you may deselect only some files by entering a specification and then pressing "Deselect".

Even though we use the term "file" specification here, the wildcards also work on abstract objects, such as program or shadow objects.

The "Select all" and "Deselect all" buttons do what they say: they select or deselect all items in the folder, respectively.

The dialog window only closes when you press "Close" or the "Esc" key. It does not close after you press any of the other buttons. This allows you to select several groups of files.