No more checkboxes for unstaged files?

[Paul McLean]

I just updated to v1.9.6.1 of SourceTree, and now there don't seem to be any checkboxes next to the unstaged files, which were used to stage them. I used this feature a lot, so I was hoping there would at least be some sort of alternative for staging a file with a single click.

Right now, the only way I've discovered is right clicking and choosing add. I know it probably seems silly to be asking for this, as it's only an extra click, but when done many times throughout the day, anything that streamlines the process is appreciated.

If you removed the checkboxes for a reason, and perhaps don't want to reintroduce them, may I suggest something like a double click to stage the file? Or perhaps there's some other workflow that I've completely missed that I can use?

[Rodney · Accepted solution]

This has been brought up before and I haven't read any official statement on the reasoning it was changed.

The checkboxes are available in "No Staging" view which makes sense since the clicking on the checkbox is in a sense staging the file.  So chances are it was not suppose to be in "Split View Staging" even though I found it convenient.

I've changed my flow to use the space bar to selectively stage files and use Stage All when it's everything.

Another thing that was removed was being able to drag files from Unstage to Staged.

[Paul McLean]

I didn't know about the option to use space bar, thanks!

[Seth]

I can't speak to official reasoning, but when the checkboxes were first introduced, there were a lot of complaints that clicking a checkbox caused the files to switch panels (staged vs unstaged), as opposed to simply selecting the file so a particular action could be applied to selected files (stage/unstage, discard, remove, etc).

For example: https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/292446

[Paul McLean]

That makes sense, as it follows traditional checkbox functionality. I guess I was a late adopter and just got used to clicking it stage a single file.

[Dave Coder]

People complained about the unstaged files moving to the Staged panel?! That's exactly what I liked about the checkboxes... and it made complete sense for them to behave that way. Did people not understand how staged/unstaged works?

Clicking on the file name (selecting) now then hitting the space bar does the same thing... except it's one more step per file or commit. Removing the checkboxes doesn't remove the switching of the files between the Staged/Unstaged panels... so I'm not understanding how the change made anything better; it just added steps.

When I was using the Mac version (for the last 2 years, always latest), the unstaged files in any view showed checkboxes (including Commit view), and clicking them didn't change views, it just moved them from the Unstaged section (panel?) to the Staged section. It was really nice.

The extra steps now are annoying, and the complaints seem asinine in retrospect... the change seems almost just as much.