How to organize files in Finder without creating duplicates?

Well, depending upon how organized you want to be....

First you could create new folders for different subjects within your Documents folder on your hard drive. Then with the Documents folder open, you can drag the documents from your desktop over to the folder you want to store it in, let go of mouse button when you're hovering over the right folder.

That should do it...

 

On a Mac you can:
Move a file
Duplicate a file
Create an alias to a file

All by dragging and dropping using various key presses at the same time, so it's important to understand which of these you are actually doing when you think you are moving your files.

The Alt key modifies your drag and drop so that you duplicate the file
Alt and Cmd together creates an alias or a shortcut to the original file

The best thing to is create a simple unimportant file on your desktop, then experiment with ways to move it around. It's puzzling that you're having trouble with this because the default is simply that without a modifier you simply drag and drop a file, moving it from one place to another.

When you're experimenting click a file and move it slightly, holding down the mouse key. Without letting go of the mouse now press Alt and you will see the green PLUS sign indicating that your are about to duplicate the file in the new location. Now press the Cmd key AS WELL and the icon changes to a small arrow as you are about to create an Alias. Nothing actually happens until you let go of the mouse, so you can take your fingers off the keys and move the file back to where it was. If you let the mouse go earlier you will create a duplicate.

I hope this helps.


I hope this helps

 

Ok, on a Mac keyboard (I'm not using one, so I hope I get this right) that's the Option key.

Plus, it depends...
If you're dragging between locations on the same device, the above quote is accurate.

If you are going from one device to another, the default is to copy. Pressing the Option key makes it a move.

Short on time, sorry.

 

Thanks Gregg2. I know the Mac historically has an Option key but it's one of the confusing things about Macs I was trying to avoid. I'm using a MacBook Pro keyboard and that key has 'alt' written on it.

Good point about the additional complication of dragging and dropping between devices.

 

I've just discovered something I didn't know which may explain the trouble here...

It turns out that if a file is LOCKED then dragging and dropping it creates a duplicate without asking. I didn't know that. You need to select 'get info' and uncheck the Locked box before it will behave normally.

Locking can be set to happen automatically after a file hasn't been used for a period of time so I strongly suspect this is what's happened.

 

The same thing can happen if the file's enclosing folder is locked. Get Info on the Desktop folder in home folder, and make sure it's unlocked.