Mac Option Key tip #06: Option-Drag to Duplicate

Updated September 8th, 2019.

The Option Key Tip-a-Palooza continues with one of the handiest tips ever, namely the Option-Drag technique. Sixth in a series.

When you drag things around on your Mac, they move, right? Right. At least that’s how it usually works: drag a file from one folder to another folder, and it moves. Drag a graphic object from one position to another in Pages or Keynote or Preview and the object moves to the new location. Of course it does. What else would it do? Well, if you hold the Option key when you drag stuff you’ll make a copy while leaving the original in place. See the animated graphic at the top of this post for an example.

Here’s an example, using the Calendar.

Suppose you set aside time on Tuesday to work on a website and you put it into your calendar, like so:

Let’s say you know you’re not going to get it all done on Tuesday so you want to plan to do it again on Wednesday. Dragging the appointment to Wednesday moves it to Wednesday. It’s gone from Tuesday. That’s not what you want– you want the appointment to still be on Tuesday, but you also want it to be on Wednesday. Dragging from Tuesday to Wednesday makes the calendar look like this when you’re done.

Notice the cursor when you drag an appointment from one location to another (enlarged here). It’s an arrow.

In this case, I really wanted to COPY the appointment to Wednesday, leaving the original on Tuesday. This is easy to do: just hold the Option key down while you drag! Here’s what it looks like as you do it (note the cursor, enlarged for easy viewing):

And here’s what it looks like when you let go.

(The cursor doesn’t show the “+” as you drag in every app where Option-Drag works, but it’s worth looking for. One where it doesn’t show is Pages.)

This is much, much easier than entering an event twice. Or even copying and pasting. And it works in a lot more programs than just the Calendar, including…

• The Finder (Option-Drag to duplicate a file or folder)
• Pages and Microsoft Word (highlight some text, Option-drag to insert that text in a second location, or Option-Drag to duplicate a graphic object)
• Numbers and Microsoft Excel (highlight some cells, Option-Drag (grab the EDGE of the selection) to copy those cells elsewhere.

You should try it. This is super-handy.

That’s six.

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Click here to see all of my blog posts involving the Option key. Save yourself time and effort with the tips in those posts! Copyright 2008-2024 Christian Boyce. All rights reserved.

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