Finally - a way to CUT and paste files

One minor annoyance I've run across since switching is the inability to actually CUT and then paste a file as a means to relocate it. Sure, you can right-click, COPY and then paste, but then you've got two copies of the file.

I subscribe to MacWorld's Mac Gems newsletter and ran into this article today.

This pretty much solves all of my problems - worth a look if you're in the habit of cutting and pasting files on Windows.

By the way, if you're a new switcher, I HIGHLY recommend a MacWorld subscription. Every issue is chock full of tips and articles about utilities like this.

While that's a great little tip, you have to admit that it's a bit of a pain to have to resort to a third-party solution just for a simple cut and paste. Looks like Windows wins this round

I know all about spring loaded folders, but it can be a pain when you have to delve deep into folders...

If moving the file any distance I just open another finder window (command N)
Have the first window open at the file, the second open where you want to put it.
Drag and drop rules

I left cutting & pasting files with the full screen windows... Back on the windows box a couple of years ago

cut and paste with files on windows always made me nervous.

of course i've been restoring lost files for hundreds of coworkers for years, so that could be part of my problem.

i don't miss cut and paste, but that's a good find cwa.

I never use the feature on Windows, so it's sort of transparent to me....

Cut and Paste is NOT a good way to work! Drag the file to your desktop, go where you need to go, put the file from your desktop to the new location. You have no cut and pasted in a non-potentialy-districtive way.

eric said:

cut and paste with files on windows always made me nervous.

of course i've been restoring lost files for hundreds of coworkers for years, so that could be part of my problem.

i don't miss cut and paste, but that's a good find cwa.

Click to expand...

Benjamindaines said:

Cut and Paste is NOT a good way to work! Drag the file to your desktop, go where you need to go, put the file from your desktop to the new location. You have no cut and pasted in a non-potentialy-districtive way.

Click to expand...

This is Apple's stance, and I don't think it'll change. Apple did not "accidentally" forget to enable Cut when it was putting the Copy and Paste file operations in the Finder. It's a deliberate omission on their part, to protect n00bs at the potential expense of power users. For such users, this tip will be useful.

All you have to do is hold down command when you drag and drop the file(s). The green + sign goes away letting you know the file will be MOVED and not COPIED.

giulio said:

All you have to do is hold down command when you drag and drop the file(s). The green + sign goes away letting you know the file will be MOVED and not COPIED.

Click to expand...

Thanks giulio. This is a great tip. I am new to the Mac and I am trying to do as much as I can to learn the Mac way of doing things. Plus I am resistant to adding any 3rd party solutions until I am sure there is not away to do it on the Mac natively.

But, I must admit it is annoying when at first there does not seem to be a an equivalent way to do someting on the Mac that sometimes (not all) the first response on this forum is "because you should not be doing things that way" or "you should not work that way". I mean come on, people actualy believe that there is no use for "Cut-n-Paste" of a file.

Anyway, thanks for the tip. I wil defintely use it.

Cut and paste can be dangerous. I used to find it handy, but it keeps you on tenterhooks while your file is "cut", it being in he "nowhere" of your computer, until you paste it. A file is easily lost if you for some reason forget to paste it in a place and then copy text to your clipboard.

Drag and Drop is just safer. But each to his own.

yogi said:

Cut and paste can be dangerous. I used to find it handy, but it keeps you on tenterhooks while your file is "cut", it being in he "nowhere" of your computer, until you paste it. A file is easily lost if you for some reason forget to paste it in a place and then copy text to your clipboard.

Drag and Drop is just safer. But each to his own.

Click to expand...

Maybe I missed part of this. Are you talking about "cut and paste" being dangerous on the Mac or Windows? or both. On windows, when you do a cut it does not go anywere until you actually paste it. So if you cut a file in folder A and then forget to paste it to folder B then nothing happens it just stays in folder A. Which at that point there is no danger.

Now fo the Mac, I could not find a cut option (again I am new) but the "move" feature described above with the command-click action is just like drag-and-drop but it actually moves the file instead of copying it which at times is a nice feature. And I don't see any way the file could get lost in limbo.

cwa107 said:

One minor annoyance I've run across since switching is the inability to actually CUT and then paste a file as a means to relocate it. Sure, you can right-click, COPY and then paste, but then you've got two copies of the file.

I subscribe to MacWorld's Mac Gems newsletter and ran into this article today.

This pretty much solves all of my problems - worth a look if you're in the habit of cutting and pasting files on Windows.

By the way, if you're a new switcher, I HIGHLY recommend a MacWorld subscription. Every issue is chock full of tips and articles about utilities like this.

Click to expand...

i subscribe to macworld here in the uk

http://www.macworld.co.uk/

very helpful magazine and good software on the cd;s now and then.

Wonderful! Just wonderful! I have *always* missed this capability, and have had to do the "drag to desktop, navigate to destination, drag back" route. I have never liked that - I always thought file cut n paste was a rather elegant and intuitive idea.

Thanks again cwa, and bonus "virtual rep" in addition to the real rep I have just given you!!!

cwa107 said:

One minor annoyance I've run across since switching is the inability to actually CUT and then paste a file as a means to relocate it. Sure, you can right-click, COPY and then paste, but then you've got two copies of the file.

I subscribe to MacWorld's Mac Gems newsletter and ran into this article today.

This pretty much solves all of my problems - worth a look if you're in the habit of cutting and pasting files on Windows.

By the way, if you're a new switcher, I HIGHLY recommend a MacWorld subscription. Every issue is chock full of tips and articles about utilities like this.

Click to expand...

giulio said:

All you have to do is hold down command when you drag and drop the file(s). The green + sign goes away letting you know the file will be MOVED and not COPIED.

Click to expand...

When I click+Drag a file it is MOVED by default (not copied) with NO green plus +....

To COPY a file I Click+OPTION, and the Green Plus + Appears, letting me know it will be COPIED (not moved).

I never liked the cut-and-paste/copy-and-paste metaphor in Windows, and neither did many others it seems as Microsoft added the Move to and Copy to menu items at some point in the past.

Its tricky because I don't really know how I would like it to be done; but I use spring-loaded folders, or if there's room for confusion I'll just open two Finder windows.

Wow - I would have never thought there would be so much controversy surrounding this function It's just something I'm so used to doing, particularly when moving data around servers at work, that's it's just become second nature to me.

I can use it easily enough, but I've never liked the concept of cutting and pasting files. It's not like the clipboard in, say, Word because a "cut" file doesn't disappear, so the user is presented with two different responses to the same function between applications. But then Windows Consistency Edition hasn't been written yet...

I'm hooked on Drag and Drop!, no cutting and pasting for me.

Am I not correct in saying that if "Cut & Paste" makes your file disappear into the ether in Windows, then "Undo Edit" will retrieve it?

Colin Key said:

Am I not correct in saying that if "Cut & Paste" makes your file disappear into the ether in Windows, then "Undo Edit" will retrieve it?

Click to expand...

Well the file won't actually move until you Paste it - cutting it just greys out it's icon, but if it does disappear then in theory Edit|Undo should bring it back from wherever it ended up, yes.