# Move or copy documents between folders

The three ways to relocate documents — right-click Move to/Copy to, the clipboard with Ctrl+C/X/V, and the multi-select bar — plus the permission rules and the catalog boundary that stops all of them.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: user · Time: 10 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/documents/move-or-copy-documents-between-folders

**At the end of this guide you can relocate one document or fifty, know which of the three gestures fits each job, and recognize the two walls you can hit: permissions and the catalog boundary.**

## One document: right-click it

In the **Folder Browser**, right-click the document and choose **Move to...** or **Copy to...**. A folder picker opens — choose the destination and confirm with its **Move** / **Copy** button. That button is the commit; there's no second confirmation.

## Several documents: select, then act

1. Select the documents (checkboxes). A selection bar appears with the count.
2. Click **Move** or **Copy**, pick the destination folder in the picker, and confirm with **Move Here** / **Copy Here**.

This works in the Folder Browser and on search results (where a **Select** button starts selection mode) — handy when the documents to move live scattered across folders and a search is what gathered them.

## The clipboard: for tree-hoppers

The Folder Browser's right-click menu has a **Clipboard** section — **Copy**, **Cut**, and **Paste (n)** — and the shortcuts work: **Ctrl+C**, **Ctrl+X**, **Ctrl+V**. Right-clicking a folder in the tree offers **Paste here**. Cut documents aren't gone — "ready to move" — until you paste them somewhere; pasting into the same folder answers "Documents are already in this folder."

> **NOTE:** A moved or pasted document keeps its file name and stays exactly where you put it — the automatic [folder and file building](/content-central/administration/folder-and-file-building) pattern doesn't re-run on a move.

## The two walls

**Permissions.** Moving needs edit rights on the documents; copying needs the right to *add* documents at the destination. The refusals say which is missing: "You do not have permission to move documents to this folder" versus "…to copy documents to this folder." Ask your administrator about the document type involved.

**The catalog boundary.** Move and copy work *within* a catalog. Picking a folder in a different catalog earns "Cannot move between catalogs" — not an error in your technique. Changing a document's catalog is a different, deliberate operation through the Properties panel, covered in [Change a document's type, catalog, or fields after filing](/content-central/documents/change-a-document-after-filing) — and it's off by default on most systems.

**Success check:** move a test document, then find it in the destination folder with its name unchanged — and note the **Moved** row now in its Version History.

## What's next

- [Change a document's type, catalog, or fields after filing](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/documents/change-a-document-after-filing)
- [Folder and file building](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/folder-and-file-building)