way to not lose selection in a listview?

I'm looking for a way to make a listview never lose it's selection. I am trying to implement a "properties pane." I want to be able to select an item in the listview, select an item in another pane, and click a button that will update the properties pane with the selected item from the other pane. hope that makes sense. is there a simple property, or will it take some coding?