Move files in one column-view window

Dec 01, '01 04:22:45AM

Contributed by: Areh

With the new Finder, some things are different in OS X. Let's say you're copying files within the Finder. Most people would say that you need two Finder windows open. However, you don't neccessarily, which is nice (at least for me since I like it as "clean" as possible).

Okay, let's suppose you're in column view in your Documents folder. You just created a new folder inside the Docs folder for Recipes. Now you wish to move all your recipes lying around in the Doc folder into that new folder. It can be tedious to move them from one Finder window to another or to make the column terribly long or to drag the item along the scroll bar to move up or down.

Just select the target folder (one click). It'll show up to the right (its content, that is). Now select the doc you wish to move and drop it to the right. You only have to make sure that you don't actually click the doc (or any item), but keep the mouse button down and only release it over the open folder to the right. So, very often, you'll just need one Finder window.

[Editor's note: You can traverse as far up the hierarchy as you can see using this method. Grab a file from three columns back and drag it into the far right column to move it there. Or release it on any of the folders displayed in the in-between columns. This is much harder to describe than to actually do, so just experiment a little bit to see how it works.]

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