Reader Henry Francis provides the fodder for some intriguing group participation. He writes:
In the Finder, what is the easiest way to move a file from one location to another? My method is to drag the file to the Desktop, navigate to the new location, and then drag the file from the Desktop into the new location. This seems unnecessarily laborious and old-fashioned, but I cannot find any quicker way.
Interesting question. Here are a few ideas:
Spring-loaded folders Short-time Mac users may be unaware of the spring-loaded folders feature of old and that it still exists today. Click and drag the item you want to move to the volume or folder that contains the eventual destination. Hover the item over this volume or folder and that v or f opens. Drag it to the next folder and hover until that folder opens. Repeat until you reach the destination folder and then let go of the mouse button. The item drops into the folder.
Spring-loaded dock and sidebar items Volumes or folders in the Dock work the same way. Place often used destinations in the Dock and sidebar, drag the item to be moved on top of these things, and, again, you can burrow down to the destination you desire.
Copy and Go Select the item and press Command-C to copy it. Press Shift-Command-G while in the Finder and a Go to the Folder sheet appears in the front-most window. Enter the path to the folder you want to open–~/Music/iTunes, for example–click OK, and the folder opens, ready for you to move the item to it.
Use recent folders Copy the item and from that same Go menu in the Finder you’ll see a Recent Folders entry. Select it with the hope that the folder you want to move to is listed among the 10 recent folders.
Note: The failing of the Copy command is that you now have two copies of the item. If this is a big deal to you, don’t use the copy command. And while we’re on the subject of copying, you understand that you can move (not copy) items from one volume to another by holding down the Command key while dragging the item from place to place, right?
Other And here’s where the group participation comes in. I’m a fan of DragThing and have populated a palette with folders I routinely access–those on my startup drive as well as external and network drives. It’s easy enough to drag items into one of these folders or use DragThing’s spring-loaded feature to burrow in. But I know there are other options.
How about offering a few?