WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:06.000 By default, Blender uses left-click to select objects and various other elements in its editors. 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:11.000 However, when Blender was first created, it used right-click to select by default. 3 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:17.000 This confused many people at the beginning and has divided communities on which one is better. 4 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:26.000 Now, most of you will think, why would anyone use right-click to select when every other software in the world uses left-click to select? 5 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.000 Well, there is a good reason for it actually. 6 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.000 And I'll be spending this video trying to explain to you why many people prefer right-click select when using Blender. 7 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:42.000 But before we get into that, let's go over exactly how to switch to right-click select and how that affects your keymap in Blender. 8 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:50.000 To switch between left and right-click select, simply go into Edit, Preferences, and go to Keymap. 9 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.000 Here you'll see an option called Select With, Left or Right. 10 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.000 Let's choose Right to change to right-click select. 11 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:06.000 As you can see, as we left-click in the viewport, instead of selecting, our 3D cursor now snaps to our cursor location. 12 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.000 If we right-click, however, our cube can be selected. 13 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.000 But you may remember that right-click often gave us a context menu. 14 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:22.000 Since right-click will no longer bring up your context menu in certain editors, you can now press W to access that same menu. 15 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:26.000 Now, I want to quickly clarify how right-click select works. 16 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.000 It does not simply switch left-click and right-click for every action. 17 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.000 In fact, many things still use left-click. 18 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:42.000 What it does is specifically take out the selection action and assign that to right-click, so that right-click will always be select. 19 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:50.000 This is in contrast to left-click select, where left-click includes tool usage, button pressing, and selection. 20 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:57.000 With right-click select, tool usage and button pressing are still left-click, whereas right-click is now select. 21 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:05.000 This has benefits in helping the software understand what the user's intentions are between selecting and performing an action. 22 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:10.000 This is especially helpful during instances such as weight painting or texture painting. 23 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 In these painting modes, there are typically selection actions that can be performed, 24 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:20.000 but with left-click select, these get confused with the action of painting on the surface of the mesh. 25 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:27.000 For example, for weight painting, if you select the armature and then shift-select the mesh and go into weight paint mode, 26 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:32.000 you have the option to select the bones to select which vertex group to paint. 27 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:40.000 However, with left-click select, attempting to select the bones with left-click will immediately be confused for the action of painting. 28 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:48.000 Therefore, left-click users will have to hold a modifier key, in this case, CTRL, to select the bone instead of painting. 29 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:56.000 This can also be seen with face selection mode while weight painting, which will restrict your painting to specific selected faces. 30 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:02.000 This mode will also only recognize selections with left-click if you also hold CTRL. 31 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:10.000 However, with right-click select, these actions become very distinct, allowing you to simply right-click to select and left-click to paint. 32 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:13.000 This streamlines the workflow immensely. 33 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:21.000 The same goes for texture painting, which has a similar face selection mode but requires Alt-left-click to select faces. 34 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:31.000 These are just some examples, and you will find that there are many other situations and tools where separating the selection button and the action button will provide great benefits to your workflow. 35 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:39.000 This is one reason to use right-click select, but let's get into the big reason why right-click select is still popular today. 36 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:47.000 While left-click select is far more beginner-friendly, the biggest benefit of right-click select is that it is easier on your index finger. 37 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:56.000 For artists, this can be a big one as wrist injuries or repetitive stress injuries can really impact your productivity and long-term health. 38 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:03.000 By using right-click to select, a large percentage of the clicks your index finger must perform is offloaded to your middle finger. 39 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:11.000 This reduces the strain on your index finger significantly, especially considering how much you have to click in 3D software. 40 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.000 For some users, this is reason enough to switch to right-click. 41 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.000 Right-click select has a long history with Blender. 42 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:22.000 In fact, you can even submit feature requests at rightclickselect.com. 43 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000 There are many users who swear by it and there are many who prefer left-click select. 44 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.000 The choice is up to you as they both have their benefits. 45 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:36.000 I hope this helps you better understand the benefits of right-click select in Blender and I encourage you to try it out.