How to prevent Finder to copy

Hello,
I was re-organizing my files in Finder the other day. All went fine, except that when I dragged files from one folder to the other, the progress bars shows "COPYING ... files to ..."
Some of the folders my files were intended to go to, also had shortcuts to them in the Location-bar in Finder-windows.
Is it because of the shortcuts that Finder wants to copy files there instead of moving them? And, if so, how can I prevent Finder to make copies of everything and let it just move (or cut-and-paste) the files?

regular old drag and drop
within the same volume - moves the file
to a different volume - copies the file

to copy a file within the same volume - hold down the option key while dragging
to move a file to a different volume - hold down the command key while dragging

... and there's no actual cut and paste of files in Finder.

There's COPY and paste in Finder, but not CUT and paste. This is a security measure to prevent scrambled or lost data if power goes out or glitches happen during the operation.

Thanks, Apple!

Another option is to use a third party tool like FileCutter. Personally, I prefer having the option to cut and paste on occasion, despite Apple's good intentions.

chas_m said:

There's COPY and paste in Finder, but not CUT and paste. This is a security measure to prevent scrambled or lost data if power goes out or glitches happen during the operation.

Thanks, Apple!

Click to expand...

Interesting if that is the real reason, as there is a simple solution. All Apple had to do was not cut the actual file, until it is actually copied ;O) Windows does it this way I believe. When you cut, the file becomes ghosted and only is removed when the paste completes. That way, if there is a power failure one doesn't loose the original file.

Don't worry, I love my Mac, but I have yet to read a reasonable reason why cut and paste exists in other applications, but not in finder.

ovbg said:

All Apple had to do was not cut the actual file, until it is actually copied

Click to expand...

Thats what happens when you "move" the file (hold cmd when dropping it)

- Simon

Buzzard2010 said:

Thats what happens when you "move" the file (hold cmd when dropping it)

- Simon

Click to expand...

There you go ;O) Pretty easy then. It's a pity that Apple didn't include this option.

ovbg said:

There you go ;O) Pretty easy then. It's a pity that Apple didn't include this option.

Click to expand...

??? But they did include the option. It's how the OS works.

If I'm not mistaken, it wasn't always possible to do cut and paste in Windows Explorer. Anybody know when that became available? Most people seem to think it's always been around, but, you know, WE wasn't around at one time.

Source from Wikipedia... so how true I don't know...

Apple Computer widely popularized the computer-based cut-and-paste paradigm through the Lisa (1981) and Macintosh (1984) operating systems and applications. Apple mapped the functionalities to key-combinations consisting of the Command key (a special modifier key) held down while typing the letters X (for cut), C (for copy), and V (for paste), choosing a handful of keyboard sequences to control basic editing operations. The keys involved all cluster together at the left end of the bottom row of the standard QWERTY keyboard, and each key is combined with a special modifier key to perform the desired operation:
Z to undo
X to cut
C to copy
V to paste
CUA (for OS/2) also uses combinations of the Insert, Del, Shift and Control keys. Early versions of Windows used the IBM standard. Microsoft later adopted the Apple style key-combinations with the introduction of Windows, choosing the control key as their modifier key which had previously been reserved for sending control characters.

- Simon

toMACsh said:

If I'm not mistaken, it wasn't always possible to do cut and paste in Windows Explorer. Anybody know when that became available? Most people seem to think it's always been around, but, you know, WE wasn't around at one time.

Click to expand...

Most people have only been using computers for ten or fifteen years.

To them, Windows is as much a part of a computer as a keyboard.

Buzzard2010 said:

Microsoft later adopted the Apple style key-combinations with the introduction of Windows,

Click to expand...

So when was that, I wonder...

technologist said:

Most people have only been using computers for ten or fifteen years.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I mean. They don't know any better.

I would like to say Windows 3.x but could be later like Win95

- Simon

jakerich said:

??? But they did include the option. It's how the OS works.

Click to expand...

I am referring to Finder. Yes, cut and paste is everywhere else which is great, but missing in Finder.

Buzzard2010 said:

I would like to say Windows 3.x but could be later like Win95

Click to expand...

I was asking when in the sense of time also, not just chronology. So it's narrowed down: 3.x was pre-1995