How to cut and paste on Mac: text and files

How to cut and paste text on Mac

1. Select the text: drag over it, or double-click a word.
2. Press Command-X, or choose Edit › Cut. The text disappears and goes to the clipboard.

3. Click where the text should go and press Command-V, or choose Edit › Paste.

To copy and paste, press Command-C (Edit › Copy) in the second step: the text stays where it was. With a mouse or trackpad alone, Control-click the selection and choose Cut, Copy or Paste from the menu.

Cut and paste files in Finder

Finder doesn’t cut files: Edit › Cut stays dimmed when a file is selected. You copy the file and choose to move it when you paste.

1. Select the files and press Command-C, or choose Edit › Copy.

2. Open the folder where they should go.
3. Press Option-Command-V. Or open the Edit menu, hold Option and choose Move Item Here.

The files leave their old place. A plain Command-V (Edit › Paste Item) puts copies there and leaves the originals where they were.

Dragging works too. A file dragged to another folder on the same disk moves, and one dragged to another disk is copied. To move it to another disk instead, hold Command while you drag.

Paste text without its formatting

Text copied from a web page brings its font, size and color along. To paste it in the style of the text around it, press Option-Shift-Command-V or choose Edit › Paste and Match Style. Most apps that edit formatted text have this command.

Copy on a Mac and paste on an iPhone

Universal Clipboard lets you copy on your Mac and paste on a nearby iPhone, iPad or another Mac, and the other way round. It works when:

• Both devices are signed in to the same Apple Account.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on, and the devices are within about 10 meters (30 feet) of each other.
• Handoff is on. On the Mac: System Settings › General › AirDrop & Continuity, turn on Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices (in macOS 14 and 15 the section is called AirDrop & Handoff).

Copy as usual on one device, then paste on the other. The copied item is there only for a short time, so paste soon.

Find something you copied earlier

The clipboard holds one item: each new copy replaces the last. In macOS 26 Tahoe, Spotlight also keeps a clipboard history.

1. Press Command-Space to open Spotlight, then press Command-4. The first time, Spotlight may ask you to turn the history on.
2. Type a few words to find the item, select it and press Command-C.
3. Click where you want it and press Command-V.

The history can hold private things you copied. To clear it, click the button to the right of the search field and choose Clear History.