Moving vs. copying

I have many documents I need to transfer to a DVD or flash drive and give to another person (who assumed my position) for safekeeping. I do not need to keep any of it. If I "move" them will they be permanently gone from my computer or will I then have to trash them?

If you select the documents and do ⌘x , then go the your flash drive and do ⌘v , they will be gone from your drive and you won't have to trash them.

MBP17•David said:

If you select the documents and do ⌘x , then go the your flash drive and do ⌘v , they will be gone from your drive and you won't have to trash them.

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There's not always "cut" functionality available (it all depends on the app you're using). If this isn't available, simply copy the files and then delete the originals if you no longer want them.

vansmith said:

There's not always "cut" functionality available (it all depends on the app you're using). If this isn't available, simply copy the files and then delete the originals if you no longer want them.

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Of course, you're absolutely right :Blushing:
Actually, one of the situations, when "cut' is not available in Finder, is when you are selecting files from a search display.

What about Option-drag? Won' that move files, rather than copy them, to another drive?

Nope. Option drag copies not moves. I use that all the time when backing up some of my financial files to another source.

chscag said:

Nope. Option drag copies not moves. I use that all the time when backing up some of my financial files to another source.

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That's right. It's Command-drag that moves instead of copies to an external medium. I just did it. Command-drag should also copy and not move to a different folder on the same drive.