Google Drive just got a copy and paste shortcuts

Google has announced that it will add the ability to use keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste files in Drive, while you're using Chrome. The feature will use th— okay, wait a minute here. Will, we really couldn't do this anymore?

Sure enough, when we went to Google Drive on the web and pressed Command + C on a file, then went to a folder and pressed Command + V, nothing happened. And this December 2021 file of the Drive keyboard shortcuts list says nothing about features. This is fine, really, not that keyboard shortcuts for copy, cut, and paste has been around since the invention of functions in the 1970s.

However, the feature is rolling out now, and Google's post says you'll be able to use the standard Control/Command + C, X, and V to copy and move files just like you would in just about any other file manager. The company says the feature should be available to everyone on June 4. While Google was very late to the party on this one, at least its implementation isn't half-hearted. Yes, it's adding the basic shortcuts, but the feature will also work across different tabs (Google added a keyboard shortcut to open a folder as a new tab: Ctrl/Cmd + Enter). And, if you copy a file and then try to paste it into, say, a Google Doc or an email, it will insert the title of the file and a link to it.

You'll also be able to paste shortcuts to files if you don't want duplicate versions all over your cloud storage system. The command for that will be Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V. Google has been on a roll recently in adding features better late than never: On Wednesday, it announced that the ability to select multiple blocks of text is coming to Google Docs.