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Somewhat new to Mac... What's the quickest way to CUT and paste?

sonictonic

sonictonic

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2006
954
11
San Jose, California
I've had my AWESOME iBook G4 for about a month and so far have only been able to COPY and paste a file or files, from one folder to another folder...

It doesn't come up a lot, but it does come up, and just recently I am getting slightly annoyed by it, and wondered if I'm doin something wrong or not as efficient as I should.

For example, let's say I have a file on the desktop. I want to move this file to a folder that is about... let's say pretty deep in my folder structure. For some reason, when I have the file selected, my only option available is to COPY the file, and the option to CUT is grayed out... :confused: So what I've been doing, is just dragging the file to the Mac HD, and holding down the mouse button taking advantage of "spring loaded folders" (that's what they are called, right?)... but sometimes I have to go "through" so many folders, it's a little much.

So - is there a quick way to CUT a file, and then paste into another folder?

Or woudl it be simpler to just open the folder I want to move it to, in Finder, and then just drag it in?

I grew up on Windows guys, so I am just curious and would like to know why I neever seem to have the CUT option available.

Thanks!!! :)
 
Control (ctrl) click... Thats the quickest way. Also if you want to find a word on a document or a web page it's apple button and then type the f letter on your keyboard (thats another key command a lot of new users don't know about).
 
You don't have Cut because it's dangerous. What if you cut a file, then forget to paste it? Bye bye!

Windows is inconsistent in this regard - in any text-processing app, Cut makes the text disappear. But cut a file, and the original remains behind until you paste it. Apple's gone for consistency and have disabled the dangerous Cut command.
 
What you can do is you can copy the item and then go to your folder and then paste and then delete the other.

Just an option... :)
 
Nermal said:
You don't have Cut because it's dangerous. What if you cut a file, then forget to paste it? Bye bye!

Windows is inconsistent in this regard - in any text-processing app, Cut makes the text disappear. But cut a file, and the original remains behind until you paste it. Apple's gone for consistency and have disabled the dangerous Cut command.
Click to expand...


So you're saying they have it in the menu, but it is ALWAYS disabled?

LOL that seems odd to me. But alright. I'll just open the destination folder and drag the file(s) in as I started doing I suppose.

Thanks. :)
 
sonictonic said:
So you're saying they have it in the menu, but it is ALWAYS disabled?

LOL that seems odd to me. But alright. I'll just open the destination folder and drag the file(s) in as I started doing I suppose.

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...
I agree that it's a bizarre way of doing things... works fine with text, yet we're not responsible enough to do it with files? There's no danger of the file getting lost if, as in Windows for example, the file isn't actually 'removed' from the old location until it is completely copied to the new one.
 
miniConvert said:
I agree that it's a bizarre way of doing things... works fine with text, yet we're not responsible enough to do it with files? There's no danger of the file getting lost if, as in Windows for example, the file isn't actually 'removed' from the old location until it is completely copied to the new one.
Click to expand...
Technically, the Windows file cut/paste isn't actually cut/paste. It's copy/paste/autodelete original. Windows chose to call that sequence of steps "cut and paste" and it is convenient, but Apple's interface guidelines require consistency in actions and operations, so OS X doesn't include it.

In order to cut and paste quickly, you need the destination location open already. Drag and drop is just as fast in this case, though a keyboard shortcut for "move" is not at all a bad idea.
 
Dunno if you've found them yet, but Spring-Loaded Folders are the mutt's nuts! (that means 'really quite good')

Start dragging the item you want to move or copy. Drag over another Finder folder (or, indeed, desktop icon or even sidebar icon) and hover for a second or two. BOOM! Out pops the folder. You can drill down to your destination by repeating this in each new window.

I believe Move is the default action (unless you're dragging between volumes... just like on Windows), but you can turn it into a Copy by holding the Option key ... or indeed, into a 'Create Alias' action by holding Command+Option.

If you're like me, and would rather spring-loaded folders sprung open after less of a delay, you can set that in Finder's preferences.

Couple spring-loaded folders with Exposé set as a hot-corner, and there's nowhere you can't drill down to. For example, if I need to drag something into a folder I don't have handy in my Sidebar, I start dragging the source items, flick my mouse down to the bottom right corner (which I've set as Exposé's 'Show Desktop'), the hold over my Macintosh HD icon and drill down to the destination.

Convenient, quick, and looks damn cool too :)

[edit: a couple of additional notes: if you're hovering over an item and want it to spring open instantly, hit the spacebar. Also, remember that you can drill down *anywhere*. For example, imagine you have a subfolder in /Applications called Games. You've just downloaded a new game, and you've got the Finder showing it. Pick it up, and hover over Applications in the Finder window's sidebar. Then you can move across into the main area of the window and hover over Games.... then drop the file exactly where you want it. I never *ever* have two windows open just to move files around. Spring-Loaded Folders were available in OS 9, and it was a painful few years back in the early days before they found their way into OS X]
 
matticus008 said:
Technically, the Windows file cut/paste isn't actually cut/paste. It's copy/paste/autodelete original. Windows chose to call that sequence of steps "cut and paste" and it is convenient, but Apple's interface guidelines require consistency in actions and operations, so OS X doesn't include it.
Click to expand...
Heh, while I can't fault that, 'copy/paste/autodelete original' both makes more sense and is user-friendly. If Apple need to invent a new name for this sequence of events then that's fine by me, but it's no reason to omit such a feature altogether.
 
Sorry to bang on about spring-loaded folders, but I've just noticed something else which may be of use.

Drag some text, images, or indeed pretty much anything from any app. You've probably found that dragging this to a Finder window (or the desktop) will either copy the item there as a file, or create a TextClipping. But spring-loaded folders work here, too. Imagine a folder in your Home/Documents folder called "Stupid Internet Quotes". You're browsing one day and find (you guessed it) a Stupid Internet Quote. Highlight it, drag it off the page, flick your Windows aside with Exposé, then drill down as usual to your Stupid Internet Quotes folder... and you're done!

Have a play around and see if it suits you. Sadly, for reasons unknown, the 'location' section of the dock (the right-hand side) isn't spring-loaded, which is a bit of a shame. I get around this pretty much by having an alias to my Home on my desktop. Makes filing stuff away with the spring-loaded technique that much easier.
 
I know this probably will annoy people used to the Windows way, but I've always hated the whole idea of "Cutting and Pasting" files. For one thing, I don't believe that a "cut" should necessarily be followed by a paste. I.e. I should be able to use "Cut" just to effectively delete a file, just like in Word if I highlight a bunch of characters and hit "Cut" they get deleted.

Sure, they get moved onto the clipboard, but what do I care.

In Windows "Cutting" a file will not delete it, so this is a non-obvious function in my mind.

BTW - if you have issues with moving files around, may I suggest "XShelf", it gives you a little shelf that pops out of the side of the screen. You can dump files in it temporarily, and them grab them later to put into a different directory. Works quite nicely, although it runs under Rosetta on Intel Macs, as its not a big app it still runs fine.
 
Spring Folders are the built-in fix to this problem.

Ever thought Quicksilver? It can be described as SpotLight on steroids, it makes moving files easier than drinking a cold beer on a hot day.
 
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