[ossie]

Shirley, you are absolutely correct. Why on earth the experts try to complicate things, goodness only knows. Just drag the item you wish out of trash, and place it on the desktop, or wherever you wish.

[quiethand]

Seems as though this works only for files you manually add to the trash. I got the same grayed delete button on files placed there as a result of updates and deleted files from ClamXav.

[quiethand]

I posted a reply that didn't show up that may explain the behavior some are experiencing.

If something is placed in the trash by a program, like a SW update, or dumping older versions of iOS apps automatically as iTunes does, those files will not allow the Put Back menu item and the delete button is grayed out. Files I trash manually however do respond to the command. As said above, if multiple files originated from a single location they can all be returned at once, otherwise they must be done individually.

As far as the quality of the Tip/Article goes, if one had researched this a little and happened to notice the behavior with files trashed automatically or from some other program, it would have been nice to explain, and the fact this feature was (re)introduced in Snow Leopard. Further, as many wonder when they toy with the "Secure Empty Trash" command, that it is implied that files not emptied from the trash THAT way are somehow retrievable. How those files are securely deleted, and how and under what conditions normally trashed files can be retrieved would be a far more useful exploration. I'm not aware of any way to do that that doesn't involved 3rd party software. Flash media are pretty easy to do. The system drive is more time consuming.

My two cents. Not a bad article, but more depth would be appreciated.

[Petew]

atsilver, on 26 April 2011 - 07:55 AM, said:

Sometimes there are guys out there that thinks that every mac user is using the latest version of OS X. As already mentioned by several guys here, these hints don't work in Leopard or before. May be they work well in SL. Any way, many thanks for sharing.

Command-Z works in Tiger on a PPC

[GarrettWesleyGibbons]

TeryKayBailey-Holly, on 26 April 2011 - 06:58 AM, said:

Almost thought this was an April fools joke, but, well, it's 25 days late.....

Yeah, I'm right there with you....

[bud]

ZombieReagan, on 26 April 2011 - 02:18 AM, said:

It would have taken two extra minutes to add screenshots to this tip, and it would have far improved the article. Please consider doing this in the future, as well as putting your 'How To' articles in their own section (or at least make it a searchable, tagged category).

I found the explanation perfectly clear and so simple that no illustration was needed (for me). I also appreciate the item. I have really missed (since OS 9) the ability to automatically put deleted items back to their original folder. I had no idea that that feature was back.

If this is just a new thing Apple added for 10.6, I suppose mentioning that limitation might have headed off some of the calls for screenshots.

[Nancy]

Shirley, on 26 April 2011 - 04:04 AM, said:

How strange. I just drag a trashed file to the desktop or to a folder in another Finder window.

Me, too. I hope someone explains why.

[whitedog]

Nancy, on 03 May 2011 - 12:37 PM, said:

Shirley, on 26 April 2011 - 04:04 AM, said:

How strange. I just drag a trashed file to the desktop or to a folder in another Finder window.

Me, too. I hope someone explains why.

That's the "normal" way to do things. It's not necessarily the best way. This hint provided some alternative techniques. If they don't float your boat - or you aren't working in OS X 10.6.x - then don't use them. It's just that simple.