Windows does it better, pt. 3: Cut in File Explorer
Dragging and dropping files with your mouse in the Finder is nice, but there are many moments you wanna reach for the keyboard instead. Finder supports that. You dragged the file to a wrong place by accident? ⌘Z can undo it in a jiffy. You already have the right windows open? ⌘C and ⌘V can start a copy faster than the fastest of mouse gestures. And for cutting, there’s always…
…well, no, there isn’t. To the best of my knowledge, the Cut item in the menu never lights up around files or folders; you simply cannot ⌘X or cut in the Finder.
I think I understand the reasoning here. Of the Fantastic Four that is ⌘ZXCV, it’s ⌘X that is the truly dangerous one. Putting something in a clipboard is always a balancing act – a moment of inattention, and ⌘X turns into Delete. We generally accept it for text because the stakes are not very high, and text undo is basically too cheap to meter. Even then, occasionally, disaster strikes.
For files, the stakes are quite a bit higher. The creators of the File Explorer in Windows knew all that – yet, Cut still works there:
The way this is done is that the file isn’t immediately removed and put on the clipboard. No, only the intention of cut is registered – one half of the handshake, if you will – but the file stays put and nothing happens until the deal gets closed via a subsequent paste.
Or, almost nothing. There is a signal that ⌘X took effect – the cut files turn slightly transparent to indicate they put on their shoes and they’re ready to go. But if you don’t finish the paste, they become solid again the moment you cut something else, or when you restart the computer. (I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a timeout, too, although I couldn’t verify that.)
I am not sure why macOS doesn’t do it the same way, particularly since they have a half-finished state designed already, for copying larger selections:
This feels like a strange omission I don’t fully understand, particularly given that it was vintage Mac OS that put the ⌘XCV combination on the map:
What’s even stranger is that the Finder has a command to move files – but an unusual one, buried inside the secret area in one of the menus, as an ⌥ alt to Paste:
It works. By putting the action on the other side, it avoids the “file floating in outer space” challenge, too. But it’s so undiscoverable that even though Move Item Here was introduced in 2011, I only learned about it a month ago as I started researching this more – and even though I know about it now, it still feels profoundly alien, being on the wrong side of the cut/paste continental divide.
In a reversal of typical state of things, it feels to me is that it was Mac that did a simple/cheap thing, and Windows that spent extra effort to dress it up into clothes of an existing Cut for reasons of familiarity, consistency, and better experience. Sure, a keyboard way to move files like Move Item Here is somewhat valuable, but nowhere near as valuable as a traditional cut, put under ⌘X ahead of ⌘V, working the same as everywhere else for years, even for decades, as one of the first denizens of motor memories all around the world.
