19. Move, Copy, or Delete a Document or Folder  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 11 Find an Item 15 Rename a Folder or Document 18 Set a Color Label
Moving a document or folder from one place to another is one of those fundamental tasks that make up the core of using an operating system such as Mac OS X. If you ever decide to organize your files or clean up your system, you've got a lot of folder manipulation and document-moving ahead of you. When you duplicate a document or folder, you create an identical copy of it in the same folder, with all the same properties except for the word copy added to its name. You can then use this duplicate to make changes, create a backup, or any number of other uses. Unlike an alias (which is just a link back to the original file), a duplicate is actually a second file that exists separately from the original and shares nothing with the original except for its name .  NOTE  | If you drag an item from one volume or disk to another (such as from a CD-ROM to the hard disk), the item is duplicated rather than moved. The green + icon next to the mouse cursor indicates that the operation will be a duplication. To duplicate rather than move an item directly into another location, hold the Option key as you drag a document or folder from one Finder window to another. |
Because deleting a document or folder is by nature a destructive action, Mac OS X makes it a two-step process to protect your files. First you move the item into the Trash (analogous to Windows' Recycle Bin); later, you empty the Trash to delete the items in it permanently. You might think this an unnecessary precaution, but sooner or later you will have an experience where you wish you hadn't deleted something. If you haven't yet emptied the Trash, you can easily retrieve the deleted item. 19. Move, Copy, or Delete a Document or Folder 
| 1. | Locate the Item to Move, Copy, or Delete In a Finder window, navigate to the document or folder that you want to move, copy, or delete. If you're working with an item on the Desktop, you don't have to open this first Finder window. TIPS You can select multiple items at once by dragging a selection box or by using modifier keyshold down Shift to select a contiguous block of files, or  to select multiple individual files. To move or delete these multiple items, click any of the selected items and drag. You don't necessarily have to open a second, "destination" Finder window. If you have spring-loaded folders enabled, you can drag the item onto any folder, hold it there, and the folder will spring open into a new Finder window. Keep repeating this processwithout letting go of the mouse buttonuntil you're at the destination. Then release the button to move the item. | | 2. | Navigate to the Destination Folder
If you're moving an item, open a second Finder window, and use it to navigate to the folder to which you want to move the document or folder. If you're moving an item to the Desktop, you don't have to open a second Finder window.
| | 3. | Drag the Item to Move or Delete To move the item, click and drag the document or folder from the first Finder window into the second one. To delete the item, drag the item to the Trash can at the right end of the Dock. Alternatively, select the item or multiple items, then choose File, Move to Trash (or right-click or Control +click the item and select Move to Trash from the contextual menu), or simply press  . The items are now in the Trash, and can be retrieved by clicking the Trash icon to open a window that lists all the items in the Trash, and then dragging the items back out again. NOTE When deleting items on a remote network drive, Mac OS X cannot move the items to the Trash on your own computer; instead, the items are deleted immediately (after you confirm in a dialog box that this is what you actually want to do). Be careful deleting items on a remotely mounted driveyou can't undo the action! | | 4. | Duplicate the Item Choose File, Duplicate to create a copy of the selected item. Alternatively, select Duplicate from the Finder's Action menu, press  , or right-click or Control +click them item and choose Duplicate from the contextual menu that opens. NOTE If you duplicate a folder, all of the folder's contents are duplicated as well. A new item is created next to the original one; the new item has the same name as the original with the word copy appended to it before the extension (if any). This default naming convention allows the duplicate to appear next to the original when you sort by name. To give the new item a more descriptive name, click the item's name and type a new one. Press Return when you're done. | | 5. | Empty the Trash Periodically, you should empty the Trash to clear out the list of items you have thrown away and free up disk space (which is not recovered if you simply throw items away). Emptying the Trash is a permanent, one-way operation; afterward, items that were in the Trash can't be recovered. Choose Empty Trash from the Finder menu; alternatively, press  . A confirmation message appears (which you can turn off in the Finder Preferences window). After you confirm the operation, the Trash is emptied. NOTE If you simply empty the Trash, there's a possibility that the deleted items can be recovered by the right kind of special software. If you've thrown away sensitive data that you want to make sure can never be retrieved, Mac OS X provides a Secure Empty Trash option. From the Finder menu, select Secure Empty Trash , and confirm at the dialog box that you want to proceed with this operation, which scrambles the data where the deleted files were, making it impossible to retrieve them. | | 6. | Add a Delete Button to Your Toolbar
If you want, you can put a button on the Finder toolbar that lets you immediately move all selected items to the Trash with a single click. With a Finder window open, choose View, Customize Toolbar and drag the Delete button from the Customize Toolbar dialog box into the toolbar where you want it to appear. Then click Done to close the dialog box.
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