Finder shortcut keys

[stevearm]

Hi all,

I'm currently still using Snow Leopard but will finally be looking to make the switch to El Cap in the next few weeks.

On SL I was using a fantastic little app called moveAddict. It let you press Cmd-X and Cmd-V to move files easily within Finder.

I know newer OS X's have a way of cutting and pasting by Copying then pressing Option-Cmd-V to move instead of copying but can anyone tell me if it's possible to map Cmd-X and Cmd-V to Cut and paste? Are there any Terminal commands or third party apps to facilitate this?

 

[deany]

I was watching a youtube video & 'Alfred' for Mac was mentioned, I might try this out. Have you heard of it?

https://www.alfredapp.com

 

[stevearm]

Not really what I was looking for tbh. I want to be able to press Cmd-X to cut and Cmd-V to paste. Is there a way of doing this either via a third party app, or built in options?

 

[KALLT]

Not really what I was looking for tbh. I want to be able to press Cmd-X to cut and Cmd-V to paste. Is there a way of doing this either via a third party app, or built in options?

It depends. If you mean that by pressing command–X the file is cut/deleted and then pasted with command–V then probably not. You’d need some mechanism that stores the file somewhere else temporarily to make this possible, as a surrogate for the clipboard. If you just want to move the file instead of copying it then Finder indeed does it: command–C and then option–command–V. You can make this the default behaviour as well by overriding the shortcuts in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts.

 

[stevearm]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm currently using Snow Leopard, with a fantastic little app called moveAddict. Pressing Cmd-X, cuts/deletes the file(s), then pressing Cmd-V pastes it in a new location. I've gotten so used to using this for file management over the years but I'm planning on updating to El Cap tomorrow and was hoping I could carry on using this functionality. Cmd-C and Option-Cmd-V will have to do but I was really hoping there would be a way to carry on with X and V.

Can I ask what you mean by making Cmd-C and Option-Cmd-V the default behaviour? What difference would that make?

 

[KALLT]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm currently using Snow Leopard, with a fantastic little app called moveAddict. Pressing Cmd-X, cuts/deletes the file(s), then pressing Cmd-V pastes it in a new location. I've gotten so used to using this for file management over the years but I'm planning on updating to El Cap tomorrow and was hoping I could carry on using this functionality. Cmd-C and Option-Cmd-V will have to do but I was really hoping there would be a way to carry on with X and V.

Can I ask what you mean by making Cmd-C and Option-Cmd-V the default behaviour? What difference would that make?

You can change the shortcut for copying to command–X as well if you like. You can change any shortcut, in fact. The workflow is a bit different, instead of marking a file for cut/paste you just mark it and can decide what to do with it by either pressing command–V for copying and option–command–V for moving. It’s probably the easiest way for you to get the exact set up you want without having to use third-party tools.

Changing shortcuts is easy. All you have to do is open the menu bar of the application (here the Finder) and write down the specific command you want to change (you can see alternative shortcuts by pressing a modifier key, such as the option key). In this case: “Move Item Here” and “Paste Item”.



Then you open the setting in System Preferences and add two new shortcuts for the app Finder. There you enter the exact command and a shortcut of your choice.



Finally, you can see the result in Finder, the commands are now reversed.

 

[stevearm]

Very interesting, thanks so much for explaining it. I'm curious though, does that mean I can just swap Paste item (Cmd-V) with Move item here (Option-Cmd-V) so that I would "cut" a file with Cmd-C and move it with Cmd-V? Can I set up shortcuts for that?

 

[KALLT]

Very interesting, thanks so much for explaining it. I'm curious though, does that mean I can just swap Paste item (Cmd-V) with Move item here (Option-Cmd-V) so that I would "cut" a file with Cmd-C and move it with Cmd-V? Can I set up shortcuts for that?

Yes, that’s what I just explained. See the last screenshot.

 

[stevearm]

Sorry yes just double-checking. So if I also replace the Copy file shortcut with Cmd-X it should end up being like I have at the moment Thanks for the tips

 

[KALLT]

Sorry yes just double-checking. So if I also replace the Copy file shortcut with Cmd-X it should end up being like I have at the moment Thanks for the tips

Indeed.

 

[stevearm]

Yes, that’s what I just explained. See the last screenshot.

Sorry to trouble you again, I've tried changing Move Item here to Cmd-V and Copy to Cmd-X but although it recognises the former, the latter only works if a file isn't selected. See these two screenshots... first is with nothing selected, second with a folder selected