Accessing the new intended Folder for a File Paste, Windows vs. Mac

I am replying to my own question because I have worked out the answers, after considerable further effort.

I think I now see what has been throwing me off in Finder. A key background point is that Finder has one pane, while File Explorer has two panes, but I had not figured out some consequences of that. In File Explorer, if you drag Folder M over Folder N and drop, then M will be a subfolder of N, one level down. This is invariably the case, best I can tell. Moving a file in finder, you can hover over a folder and drop after the folder is highlighted, and the file lands directly under the folder.

But in Finder, moving a folder over another folder to drop into will result in the Finder window automatically (after hovering) sliding over to show one level down from the folder being dropped into. Or, you can double click the folder to go one level down. You can use breadcrumbs to verify the name of the folder one level up although there seems to be no good way to enlarge the font in breadcrumbs, so not easy to read.

A main reason for this automatic shift is that Finder has only one pane. Correspondingly there is no such automatic shift in File Explorer because it has two panes: The left pane for folders, and the right pane for the contents of the folder selected in the left pane.

Aside from being a big surprise to someone new to a Mac, the single pane set up is also prone to accidents as follows: Hovering over the folder to be moved has of course the cursor at a specific position in the Finder window. If Finder makes its automatic shift down a level as the drop occurs, Finder drops the folder being moved into whatever folder happens to be under the cursor one level down, after the automatic Finder level shift. Users who fully understand all this will do okay, but I for one kept puzzling as to how and why I would hover over one folder pre-drop, and post drop did not see the folder being dropped. It was not where it was ‘intended’ to be, and I had to go look for it.

Using the Move Here tools in Finder works well and, I think, avoids these drag and drop problems. [Option+Menu bar>Edit>Move Here, or Option+V]. Some add Command+ here. Given the Move Here tools, this pothole (in my perception) in Finder is not a big deal in the long term, although sometimes drag and drop is convenient and quick, so it has to be understood. For learners like me, it can be very messy and off-putting.

My own conclusion, based on analyses such as the above, is that having two panes in this app type is a sounder and more logical arrangement than having one pane. Apple started it wrong and can’t get out of it easily enough, in my view. Offering both a single pane and a two pane setup in one app sounds not easy, and most current users likely would not warm to going to a two pane app only. But I wish I at least could have found some weeks back an Apple support article about the above accident-prone scenario, or at least something directly addressing the ‘single pane’ consequences. That would be bad marketing, but good support.