Hi Keith,
Now you have me confused, which is not difficult these days.
Reading the bit about:
I have NEVER been able to get to grips with 'cut, copy and paste'. My youngest daughters spent what must seem like hours trying to teach me the art but it just will not engage in my brain.
I assumed the meaning of C, V, X was the problem, but no, you said, you understand that fine but:
how, where and why, that is THE question
That's the bit I don't quite follow. Do you mean how do you do it?
Forgive if I've got that wrong as I wander into an explanation.
On your Mac, normally within Documents in your Home Directory, you will have
Folders (contains Files, Photos, PDFs, whatever); separate
Files on their own which, again could be data, PDFs, even a single picture (JPEG) - and you want to:
1. Move one or more Folders or individual Files from Position A to Position B. One way is to select all the thing you want to move, Left Click and drag them from A to B. But requires a steady hand and also that A and B are both visible to you - Not always the case if A is buried within some Folder structure and B in a different Folder structure.
So instead, you highlight the articles needing moving and hold down the Command Key and whilst still holding it down, Click on X. Then navigate to position B and whilst holding the Command and V keys, it pastes them to the new location.
2. Alternatively, you may want to Copy items from A to B. Select the items by highlighting them, hold down the Command key and keep doing so whilst you hold down the C key. Off you go to position B and it's Command + V together that pastes them there.
I prefer this method for moving things rather than Command + X, because if I copy something from A to B, I can verify that everything is where it should be - and then go back to position A and Delete the items. Belt & Braces approach.
Is that what you were after? Or have I misunderstood you?
Ian