How to Cut and Paste Files in ComfortFiles
Updated August 17, 2026
In ComfortFiles, cut and paste works on files the way it does in Windows Explorer: select, press ⌘X, go to the destination, press ⌘V. The file moves. No modifier tricks, no copy-then-move.
Steps
- Select one or more files or folders.
- Press ⌘X — or right-click and choose Cut.
- Navigate to the destination folder (tree, tabs, or address bar).
- Press ⌘V — or right-click empty space and choose Paste.
Copying works the same way with ⌘C. Nothing is moved or written until you paste.
Paste straight into a folder
You don’t have to open the destination first. Right-click any folder — in the list, in icons, or in the sidebar — and choose Paste: the files land inside it. Windows Explorer behaves the same way, down to the detail that the keyboard shortcut does not: ⌘V always pastes into the folder you’re currently viewing, whatever happens to be selected.
Move To and Copy To — when you don’t want to go there first
Cut and paste asks you to be in two places: cut here, navigate there, paste. When the destination is somewhere you already use often, that navigation is the whole cost of the operation.
Right-click the selection and choose Move To or Copy To. The submenu offers:
- the three folders you last moved something to, at the top;
- every folder pinned to Quick Access;
- Choose…, which opens a folder picker for anywhere else.
Pick one and the files go. Nothing is held on a clipboard in between, and ⌘Z takes it back exactly as it does for a paste.
What the menu leaves out is deliberate, not missing:
| Not offered | Why |
|---|---|
| The folder you are looking at | Moving files to where they already are is not an operation |
| A folder inside your own selection | It is about to move; the destination would move with it |
| A pinned folder on a disk that is not plugged in | A row that can only fail is worse than no row |
The two verbs share one list of recent destinations, because “where did I put that last time” is the same question whether you are moving or copying.
Create Shortcut — the same file, in two places
Sometimes the answer is neither move nor copy: you want the file to stay where it belongs and
still be reachable from somewhere else. Select it and choose Create Shortcut — a macOS alias
appears beside the original, named <name> alias, which you can then move wherever you like.
An alias keeps pointing at the file even after it is renamed or moved, which is the difference between it and a copy: a copy is a second file that drifts out of date the moment you edit one of them. ⌘Z removes the alias again.
Undo
Pasted into the wrong folder? ⌘Z undoes the move and puts the files back where they were. Redo with ⇧⌘Z.
Related
- Prefer the mouse? Drag files onto any folder in the sidebar tree, or onto another tab.
- Coming from Finder and wondering why this needs a how-to at all? The story of cut and paste on the Mac.
- Want a file opened by a particular app instead of moved? Open with, and your own apps.