Moving Files between Folders
Mac Tip #81/04-Dec-2002

Sometimes you find you have a document in the wrong place — maybe you filed your letter to Aunty Flo in your Novels folder and Chapter 3 of your novel in your Letters folder. The best place to sort this out is in the Finder.

First though be sure to close the file if you’re working on it (ie if you’re in the middle of your letter, close the window and save the changes).

Open up your hard drive window and find your way to the Letters folder, then open it. Now open your Novels folder into a new window. Put the windows side by side on your screen.

Now you can just drag the letter to Aunty Flo out of the Novels folder and drop it into the Letters folder, and vice versa for Chapter 3.

If you want to copy the file instead of move it then you can hold down the Option key while you drag it to the new location. In OS X only, you can copy a file to a new location by selecting the file (click on the icon not the name), choosing Copy from the edit menu, clicking in the new location and choosing Paste from the Edit menu.

If you want to make an alias of a file in a new location then hold down both the Option key and the Command (Apple) key while you drag it. The file will stay where it is, but an alias will appear in the new location.