Duplicate vs Duplicate Exactly

I was trying to remember a Finder key combination, when I stumbled across Duplicate Exactly. Does anyone know the difference between “Duplicate” and “Duplicate Exactly”?

I found an explanation here. As I understand it, ‘Duplicate Exactly’ preserves the permissions associated with the original file while ‘Duplicate’ has it inherit the permission structure of the target.

3 Likes

Thanks, I just learned something. :slight_smile: I thought it also preserves creation date, but it turns out creation date is already preserved by the regular duplicate.

Wow, that is some poor terminology there. As a designer I’d have chosen to use “Duplicate With Permissions” or similar. Not great to make people wonder what “Duplicate” actually means.

2 Likes

interesting. I notice there are several new-to-me commands available if one holds down shift-option keys and open various menus.
(10.14.6)

2 Likes

You’re right!

Now if only somebody could explain to me what “Open and Close Window” does. :rofl:

It opens the document in the appropriate application and closes the Finder window. If you have a folder selected (rather than a document) the command is “Open in New Window and Close”.

Dave

2 Likes

That’s a new command to me and I would have been ‘exactly’ confused by it!!

As for trying to remember “magic” Finder keyboard shortcuts, you can only trust the System Prefs->Keyboard->Shortcuts. Of course, that tab will also show you keyboard shortcuts to all your apps, including those you create yourself.

I was one of the early responders on this thread. When I saw the question, I had no idea what the difference was. However, search engines are your friend. I entered the terms in quotes and also ‘mac’ (not in quotes) into my default engine (DuckDuckGo) and looked at the first page of results. There were a few entries on point from known Mac sites. I read of a few of them and the one I thought clearest. In most cases, if there is an Apple support page or a discussion from the Apple communities forum, I’ll be sure to also check that out.

I perform similar steps when an odd error message appears, or an odd process seems to be monopolizing resources per Activity Monitor. As a last resort, I may post myself here or on Apple Communities and MacInTouch.

This is not a critique of the OP. The posting of the question allowed us all to learn something new. In fact, if one of these quests results in information that is likely to be new and of interest to others, I should probably post it here.

1 Like