Comment by oneplane | Hacker News Reader

Comment by oneplane | Hacker News Reader

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I've been using it for 25 years but don't seem to have the same problem. Across macOS Finder, Windows Explorer and the likes of KDE and Gnome's file managers most of those tasks are identical.

Copying and pasting are universally hotkey+c and hotkey+v as an example. Creating a directory is context->new in all cases.

Some changes were weird for a small period of a few days, like when moving from Classic Finder to Mac OS X Finder where the priority of hotkeys for new windows vs. new directories changed. Or when in Windows the address bar got a lower priority than filesystem abstraction of user directories (at which point the purpose got mixed). Same with Gnome2 to Gnome3.

I'm curious to see if it's "hard" as-is, or "hard" when you come from one single environment with a lot of experience that is hard to adapt to something that is not visually identical.

Is it possible to cut and paste files/ folders in Finder?

I feel like I try every few years and am unable to do it.

Instead of using Cmd+V to paste, use Cmd+Option+V to cut from the original location and paste. I like it because it lets me postpone the decision to copy or cut until the very end :)

It should be possible from the right click menu like in every other OS, but for some reason it's not. Same for creating directories.

To create new folder, right click in the window (not on a file nor a folder).

Copy paste also works with right click. To move (a la cut), hold option key.

Also hold option key to see "move" menu option under Edit - Paste (Move)

I think it's in the standard system-wide list, let me check.

Edit: yep, it's in the 'common' list: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236

They are also visible by simply clicking a menu or context-menu which shows the shortcuts on the right side at the end. Alternatively the built-in Help is actually usable as well as searching for menu items (click help and the text field will also interactively point to menu items with a big floating arrow when hovering over the search result with your cursor - that functionality works in all native HIG-conform apps, and it is dynamic so it also works when you have stuff like a "history" menu in the menu bar in a browser).

> Copying and pasting are universally hotkey+c and hotkey+v

After a couple decades, I'm still holding out for ctrl+x. Someday, someday...

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