3 ms·

Amongst other gripes people have mentioned (and I agree with), here's another: cut. There does not seem to be a way to cut and paste a file/folder. The best I

Amongst other gripes people have mentioned (and I agree with), here's another: cut. There does not seem to be a way to cut and paste a file/folder. The best I could figure out is to drag the icons, hold down the finger, and move the cursor to the desired folder on the sidebar (or another window) and release the finger. This is either extremely difficult to pull of, or I am less dexterous than I think I am. Why not have cut as an option in the drop down menu? I really can't figure this one out. What UX mantra suggests this. Also, dragging files around is also a difficult feat to overcome. You either press down too hard (end up opening all selected files in their target applications -- RIP ram, let's restart the computer), or too gently and nothing happens.

lawkwok 5y ago
Try Command + Option + V to paste and delete the source file (cut and paste). I remember this command was I implemented a few years back and I think it was to reduce chances of unpasted files from disappearing or something. In fact, opening any menu and pressing option reveals many secondary functions.
karaterobot 5y ago
This was one of my big gripes about MacOS when I had to use it for work. Evidently what you need to do is copy the file, then hold down OPT (along with CMD-V) when you paste it. You'll hear a sound effect that tells you it worked. If you right click to open the context menu, and press OPT, you'll even see the "paste item" option turn into "move item". It's 100% the wrong way to do it. Maddeningly wrong. In a world where CTRL-X hadn't existed for decades, and Apple's way of doing it was the norm, if someone came along and "invented" CTRL-X for the cut command, it would be universally recognized as an improvement.
- geraltofrivia 5y ago
  This seems to be one of those things that Apple leans hard towards, just because. à la the lightening port.
- rewgs 5y ago
  I've actually come to prefer this. Pressing Cmd+C means I've "grabbed the file." Now I can decide what I want to do with it. I might want to just move it (cut/paste = opt+cmd+v), or I might want to copy it (copy/paste = cmd+v). But the fact is, I can change my mind mid-action.
samatman 5y ago
Drag and drop has steadily gotten harder to use over the years. I have no explanation for it, it's maddening. Not cutting files is deliberate, I think. What should the OS do if you cut files, and then don't paste them and cut something else? Put them back, put them in the Trash? A sibling comment pointed out that there's a magic incantation for "paste and delete", but clearly the Mac way to do it is drag and drop. Which used to be dead easy, and now I'm lucky if I get it the first time.
- gowld 5y ago
  "Cutting" is a no good, terrible idea, but a good idea would be to allow a "Grab", and then let the user navigate elsewhere and "Move grabbed item here." Mac doesn't have that because it breaks the visual/spatial metaphor. Of course, "Copy" does too, yet Mac allows that...
  - samatman 5y ago
    I don't think that's why it doesn't exist, it's more that copy/cut/paste makes sense for most things, and the cut part is bad for files, so 'grab' wouldn't be very reusable elsewhere in the OS. Or if we're being real, they just don't have it because changing Finder is a very low priority for the company. But I agree with you that it would be a good feature for Finder! Finder is missing a lot of useful stuff, it basically hasn't changed, and when it has it isn't for the better. While we're dreaming, a great implementation of "grab" would be to have a differently-shaped window with just a doc handle and a close button on it, and the grabbed documents jump from the Finder window to the grab window. Then you can drag and drop the doc handle, or hit the "move grabbed items" hotkey, and the grabbed files/folders would jump into the new location. Or if you close the grab window they all jump back to where they were. Grab window floats on top of everything else in Finder, so you can't lose track of it, and if you close it the files always go home, and you can only have one at a time.
- geraltofrivia 5y ago
  That's a fair point. But a lot of our computer interactions are, now, so intuitive since they exist on other platforms, it just irksome if they don't exist on Mac. > What should the OS do if you cut files, and then don't paste them and cut something else? Windows, and common linux file managers leave the files in place in this scenario. Its not the most intuitive thing, but people (i think) understand this is what'll happen if you cut something and then cut something again. > magic incantation About that. I love how a combination of control, alt, command, function and tab keys can make you into a keyboard ninja but I also can't help but feel that it's a bit much. For the first few months after getting a mac, about 20-30% of my search engine queries were about these keyboard shortcuts. It's a steep slope. And the combinations often do something very fundamental that you often use tens of time a day. For instance, I was today years old when I realize that 'command+down' opens a file.
philsnow 5y ago
the only possible thing I can think of that can explain this is that if you cut and then forget about the item, it just disappears eventually (reboot, copy other item, whatever). that's one thing when it's copied text from some web page, but quite another when it's a file or folder.
- geraltofrivia 5y ago
  I'm not sure if other OS's do this. If you cut something on Windows Explorer (files or folders), they get somewhat greyed out. If you then paste them somewhere, they move. If you don't -- as in, you restart the computer, cut something else etc, the files stop being greyed out and return to their normal color. It's intuitive, and you don't lose your files.
  - dsego 5y ago
    Afaik, no OSs would delete the file once it's marked as cut. But there is a chance you accidentally move a file, which is worse than accidentally copying/duplicating one. In the latter case you just delete it but for moving you now need to figure out the original location.

lawkwok 5y ago

Try Command + Option + V to paste and delete the source file (cut and paste). I remember this command was I implemented a few years back and I think it was to reduce chances of unpasted files from disappearing or something. In fact, opening any menu and pressing option reveals many secondary functions.

karaterobot 5y ago

This was one of my big gripes about MacOS when I had to use it for work. Evidently what you need to do is copy the file, then hold down OPT (along with CMD-V) when you paste it. You'll hear a sound effect that tells you it worked. If you right click to open the context menu, and press OPT, you'll even see the "paste item" option turn into "move item". It's 100% the wrong way to do it. Maddeningly wrong. In a world where CTRL-X hadn't existed for decades, and Apple's way of doing it was the norm, if someone came along and "invented" CTRL-X for the cut command, it would be universally recognized as an improvement.

geraltofrivia 5y ago
This seems to be one of those things that Apple leans hard towards, just because. à la the lightening port.
rewgs 5y ago
I've actually come to prefer this. Pressing Cmd+C means I've "grabbed the file." Now I can decide what I want to do with it. I might want to just move it (cut/paste = opt+cmd+v), or I might want to copy it (copy/paste = cmd+v). But the fact is, I can change my mind mid-action.

samatman 5y ago

Drag and drop has steadily gotten harder to use over the years. I have no explanation for it, it's maddening. Not cutting files is deliberate, I think. What should the OS do if you cut files, and then don't paste them and cut something else? Put them back, put them in the Trash? A sibling comment pointed out that there's a magic incantation for "paste and delete", but clearly the Mac way to do it is drag and drop. Which used to be dead easy, and now I'm lucky if I get it the first time.

gowld 5y ago
"Cutting" is a no good, terrible idea, but a good idea would be to allow a "Grab", and then let the user navigate elsewhere and "Move grabbed item here." Mac doesn't have that because it breaks the visual/spatial metaphor. Of course, "Copy" does too, yet Mac allows that...
- samatman 5y ago
  I don't think that's why it doesn't exist, it's more that copy/cut/paste makes sense for most things, and the cut part is bad for files, so 'grab' wouldn't be very reusable elsewhere in the OS. Or if we're being real, they just don't have it because changing Finder is a very low priority for the company. But I agree with you that it would be a good feature for Finder! Finder is missing a lot of useful stuff, it basically hasn't changed, and when it has it isn't for the better. While we're dreaming, a great implementation of "grab" would be to have a differently-shaped window with just a doc handle and a close button on it, and the grabbed documents jump from the Finder window to the grab window. Then you can drag and drop the doc handle, or hit the "move grabbed items" hotkey, and the grabbed files/folders would jump into the new location. Or if you close the grab window they all jump back to where they were. Grab window floats on top of everything else in Finder, so you can't lose track of it, and if you close it the files always go home, and you can only have one at a time.
geraltofrivia 5y ago
That's a fair point. But a lot of our computer interactions are, now, so intuitive since they exist on other platforms, it just irksome if they don't exist on Mac. > What should the OS do if you cut files, and then don't paste them and cut something else? Windows, and common linux file managers leave the files in place in this scenario. Its not the most intuitive thing, but people (i think) understand this is what'll happen if you cut something and then cut something again. > magic incantation About that. I love how a combination of control, alt, command, function and tab keys can make you into a keyboard ninja but I also can't help but feel that it's a bit much. For the first few months after getting a mac, about 20-30% of my search engine queries were about these keyboard shortcuts. It's a steep slope. And the combinations often do something very fundamental that you often use tens of time a day. For instance, I was today years old when I realize that 'command+down' opens a file.

philsnow 5y ago

the only possible thing I can think of that can explain this is that if you cut and then forget about the item, it just disappears eventually (reboot, copy other item, whatever). that's one thing when it's copied text from some web page, but quite another when it's a file or folder.

geraltofrivia 5y ago
I'm not sure if other OS's do this. If you cut something on Windows Explorer (files or folders), they get somewhat greyed out. If you then paste them somewhere, they move. If you don't -- as in, you restart the computer, cut something else etc, the files stop being greyed out and return to their normal color. It's intuitive, and you don't lose your files.
- dsego 5y ago
  Afaik, no OSs would delete the file once it's marked as cut. But there is a chance you accidentally move a file, which is worse than accidentally copying/duplicating one. In the latter case you just delete it but for moving you now need to figure out the original location.