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Have you ever noticed that you can't cut and paste files with right click or the drop down menu in OSX? It's been a few years since I've used OSX, but every ve

by Teever 5y ago

Have you ever noticed that you can't cut and paste files with right click or the drop down menu in OSX? It's been a few years since I've used OSX, but every version I've ever tried has this intentional bug. I say intentional because when I first got a mac in the 10.4 days I noticed that 'cut' was greyed out in the menu so I thoughtfully filed a bug report. To their credit they did answer the bug report several years later but they explained that they would not fix this as it is desired behaviour. Baffling.

sxg 5y ago
I think this may be a misunderstanding on your part (no disrespect). Cut/paste works slightly differently on macOS compared to Windows. There's no actual concept of "cut". You just "copy" whatever files you want. When you're ready to paste, you can hit Cmd+V to "paste" or Cmd+alt+V to "paste and remove the original file(s)". The benefit is that you don't have to decide whether you want to just "copy" or "cut" before you're ready to "paste", which makes a lot of sense if you're not coming from a Windows background. But yes, migrating from Windows to macOS makes this feel confusing.
- Teever 5y ago
  Now how do I do this with a mouse? (I already know the answer, but I'm curious if you do. It isn't very discoverable.)
  - carl_dr 5y ago
    Drag while holding option?
    - Teever 5y ago
      With only a mouse. Imagine you're using the only computer that you'd want your mother to use.
  - sxg 5y ago
    Drag and drop from one folder to another is how I would do it with a mouse only. Is there another way?
    - Teever 5y ago
      No, there isn't. and that's my point. If you want to copy a file in OSX with your mouse you use the menu bar whereas if you want to cut and paste (move) a file in OSX with your mouse then you use the two open windows method that you describe. They are both very different and one isn't so discoverable. What's the worst about this is that it's purely a choice and Apple intentionally greys out the cut option in the menu bar. Madness.
gumby 5y ago
The mac model since the beginning is direct manipulation, not "select subject then apply verb". Obviously there are plenty of exceptions (for example text editing does include cut/paste!) but that's the baseline approach. And Windows made some specific design decisions to be different from Apple to reduce conflict (i.e. lawsuits). In addition the UX research on direct manipulation vs select-and-operate seems to have shown that the mac made the right call, but the only work I've read in that area was done long ago. This BTW is why shift-select doesn't work in icon mode (as a different commenter posted) because it was confusing for some people in a way that just drawing a selection for icons is not.
- Teever 5y ago
  Tell me how you copy and paste a file on OSX with only the mouse, and the tell me how you cut and paste a file on OSX. Its not consistent whatsoever.

by Teever 5y ago

sxg 5y ago

I think this may be a misunderstanding on your part (no disrespect). Cut/paste works slightly differently on macOS compared to Windows. There's no actual concept of "cut". You just "copy" whatever files you want. When you're ready to paste, you can hit Cmd+V to "paste" or Cmd+alt+V to "paste and remove the original file(s)". The benefit is that you don't have to decide whether you want to just "copy" or "cut" before you're ready to "paste", which makes a lot of sense if you're not coming from a Windows background. But yes, migrating from Windows to macOS makes this feel confusing.

Teever 5y ago
Now how do I do this with a mouse? (I already know the answer, but I'm curious if you do. It isn't very discoverable.)
- carl_dr 5y ago
  Drag while holding option?
  - Teever 5y ago
    With only a mouse. Imagine you're using the only computer that you'd want your mother to use.
- sxg 5y ago
  Drag and drop from one folder to another is how I would do it with a mouse only. Is there another way?
  - Teever 5y ago
    No, there isn't. and that's my point. If you want to copy a file in OSX with your mouse you use the menu bar whereas if you want to cut and paste (move) a file in OSX with your mouse then you use the two open windows method that you describe. They are both very different and one isn't so discoverable. What's the worst about this is that it's purely a choice and Apple intentionally greys out the cut option in the menu bar. Madness.

gumby 5y ago

The mac model since the beginning is direct manipulation, not "select subject then apply verb". Obviously there are plenty of exceptions (for example text editing does include cut/paste!) but that's the baseline approach. And Windows made some specific design decisions to be different from Apple to reduce conflict (i.e. lawsuits). In addition the UX research on direct manipulation vs select-and-operate seems to have shown that the mac made the right call, but the only work I've read in that area was done long ago. This BTW is why shift-select doesn't work in icon mode (as a different commenter posted) because it was confusing for some people in a way that just drawing a selection for icons is not.

Teever 5y ago
Tell me how you copy and paste a file on OSX with only the mouse, and the tell me how you cut and paste a file on OSX. Its not consistent whatsoever.