You have the option to copy and paste built into the finder menu, but not the option to move. Move can be damned handy under certain circumstances, expecially when disk space is at a premium.
Finder can do move though, even if it isn’t widely known or vastly documented within OS X. Here’s how:
Highlight the file or folder and hold down the command key, the key with the Apple symbol on it. Now drag your folder to its new location and it will move, not copy. Here’s a walkthrough for new Mac users:
Open finder, navigate to the folder with the file or folder that you want to move. Hold the Apple Key and click your home folder, it opens a new instance of Finder. Now navigate to where you want to files to move to. Select the files/folder you want to move, hold the Apple key and drag to the second Finder window. The files will now move across.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jackdaw // Sep 22, 2006 at 8:55 AM
Thanks Jerry, your comment is appreciated but it is stupid and utterly wrong.
It’s old to look both ways before crossing a busy road but you’d sure as hell teach that to your kid.
2 Jerry Kindall // Sep 21, 2006 at 7:54 PM
“A new instance of Finder”? Do you just mean “a second Finder window”? Do people really not realize that Finder is a multiple-window application? (And why did you choose the least intuitive way to have “new users” open a new window? What about File > New Finder Window?)
Also, you don’t have to hold down anything when dragging items from one Finder window to another to move them. That’s the default action.
I don’t really intend to be mean, but this boils down to “you can drag things from one Finder window to another to move them,” which is basically a 23-year-old tip.
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