Submission details
No Cut option in the Finder
The shortcut Cmd+X, which is reserved for the Cut command, simply does not work on items in the Finder. When you select any Finder item, the Copy option under the Edit menu gets enabled but the Cut option remains disabled.
Yes, you can perform a move operation by dragging files from one place to another (and holding down the Command key while dropping them when moving them across partitions) but it would be nice to have a keyboard shortcut and valid menu item for it too.
Windows has it; why not Mac OS X?
Simply enable the feature. It’s already in place but is just disabled for some weird reason.
Low
Low
Not fixed
Discussion (11 comments)
I think it's one of the dumbest things in Mac OS. I was told they didn't not include it because it's destructive... "For instance if you cut a text in TextEdit then you can easily lost the content of the clipboard by overwriting it with another copy or cut command...
But for god's sake other operating systems don't do anything with the file (just mark it for cut - in Windows the file icon and text gets transparency) until the user gives the paste command.
I'm very disappointed.
I agree - and it's kinda the same thing with when you paste in a folder with the same name and you can't merge them, you can only overwrite. And cuts are only destructive if you don't have proper checks while doing it and you don't "remove" any of the files before the entire process is done and thus avoid screwing it all up because you hit a permission error or something similar.
I think this is good thing. It's a security feature and it saved my files few times. Don't add this feature by default. If you need it, as it's written here, you can enable it.
topper: the cut option is not destructive at all...
And it can't be enabled by the user in Finder - only in 3rd party apps like Disk Order or Forklift.
lol. this bug is very interesting indeed. is there some issue with apple and cut-copy-paste feature? is there something that makes apple go wonky when coding this feature? i say this cause even iphone is missign copy-paste feature and that made me go 'are there serious issues in osx regarding copy-cut-paste' ?
So what if it's 'destructive'. With TimeMachine enabled it shouldn't really matter anyway.
I miss it! :p
Regarding "marking it as cut is not destructive": correct, but then the feature doesn't work the same way as it does in every other Apple app, which would also confuse many people.
Regarding "time machine makes cuts non-destructive": not necessarily, if a file is only 30 minutes old, it might very well not yet been backed up, in which case cutting would be destructive indeed.
I suggest Apple implements this, then turns it off by default. Turning on only via prefs-hacking.
A detailed post about how to do this is here http://macphobia.com/no-cut-option-in-mac-finder-window.macphobia
... but then the feature doesn't work the same way as it does in every other Apple app, which would also confuse many people ...
Yes all apple users are so stupid, they cannot differntiate. It's so horrible. That's so confusing. Your words imply that that all the other pcs users (windows, linux, solaris, ...) are so more intelligent - they have the brain to see through that goddamned misguidance.
This feature could easily be implemented in Leopard (or Snow Leopard).
The only thing to do is:
- When you Cut, you just mark the file(s) as cut, by hidding it (rename with a .)
- When you Paste, you really move the "." file(s) to the new location with the "." in the name.
Now the rules to be sure there's no lost:
- If you Cut and then press again Cut (or Copy) without Paste between, you will just undo the first file(s) before to process the hide for the second one(s).
The result: The first cut file will re-appear and the second will disappear.
In any case, you will be sure to don't loose any file(s). Also, it doesn't have to deal with a temp location, or cache memory, etc...
my 2 cents,
Spid
Akzel wrote on August 10, 2008, 7:54pm
I know it will generate a lot of steamed discussion, specially amongst the 'old school Mac users', but it's one of my biggest perks, maybe my biggest complain in the whole Finder experience.
It's not a question of "Windows has it" or not (because all other systems have it too, lol), but it's an important thing (moving files around) that's made harder for non-Terminal users in OS X.
I also wish they would give us the option to visualize the files in the good old "tree view" like, ermm, Windows Explorer, or any Xtree-bastard-son that millions of people use in all Linux flavours. Well, if they need some extra ideas... http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/10/11/10-windows...compared-and-reviewed/
:-)