Cut and Paste Files & Folders in Mac OS X Lion

Cut and Paste Files & Folders in Mac OS X Lion

July 29th, 2011 - Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks

Mac OS X Lion finally brings the long awaited “Cut and Paste” feature to the Mac OS X desktop and Finder, allowing users to truly cut and move the selected documents or folders to a new location, rather than just making a copy of them.

Cutting & Pasting Files and Folders in OS X 10.7 Lion is easy

• Command+C copies the files or documents, note they won’t be ‘cut’ yet
• Command+Option+V pastes the documents into the new location, cutting it from the prior locating and moving it to the new location

If you just hit Command+V you will only move a copy of the files into the new location, as in a true copy and paste, rather than a cut and paste function. Notice holding down the Option key also changes the menu text to show “Move Items Here” to further signify the difference.

This is a feature many Windows converts have been wanting for a long time. Prior to this, users would drag and drop items into their new locations to move them, or use the command line mv tool. Those still work too though, obviously.

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