When you’re editing in a word processor or graphics program, the Mac OS X Cut, Copy, and Paste commands work exactly as they do in Windows.

At the desktop, however, there are a few differences. You can indeed copy icons and paste them into a new window using the Copy and Paste commands—but cutting them out of a window, as you can in Windows, works slightly differently: After you’ve copied the icons from the first window, open the destination window. Then press the Option key, open the Edit menu, and choose Move Items Here.