Cut and paste in finder

[Vixus]

Hi, I've recently received my first ever Apple computer. It's a 15" powerbook G4. Obviously the first thing i did was oepn it up and start installing some software. I don't know what happened, but is it normal that you can't cut and paste folders from your desktop like in windows? I don't know what happened, but in Finder, the cut option is never highlighted and thus I can never actually use that command. Instead, I always have to resort to copy and paste and that can be somewhat long when you're trying to drag and drop large directories. Did I screw up somewhere along the way and disable my ability to cut?

Vixus

 

[emw]

As far as I know, you can't actually cut and paste files or folders using the Finder. You can Command-drag something, which will move it instead of copy it (or Option-drag, which will copy instead of move).

Generally speaking, if you are moving things from your Desktop to other areas on your hard drive, dragging them automatically moves them, unless it is to another hard drive (or partition) or if you have FileVault enabled and are dragging from your encrypted home folder to another folder.

 

[Darwin]

There is a feature in Mac OS that allows you to move files around:

Spring Folders

When you move a file over a foler the folder then opens up allowing you to place the file inside the folder without the need to cut and paste

Windows doesn't have this feature so like you do I have to cut and paste when on my PC to move stuff from one place to the other

 

[Santiago]

This is intentional. Apple put in Copy-and-Paste for files to appease Windows folks, but it is a poor metaphor. Cut-and-Paste is far, far worse, and they rightly refuse to put it in. Think about it: when you cut or copy, you're supposed to get the item in question on the clip board. You can then delete the original without affecting the clip board. It doesn't work this way with files, because they're too big to handle like that. Also, if I cut something, and I then cut or copy something else, I lose the original without any confirmation. Not a real problem with snippets of text, but a very bad idea for things like whole files. Windows File Cut is really just a weird way to move files in two steps with the possibility of cancelling after the first step by not following through; it violates the semantics of Cut-and-Paste.