[thelist] windows tip update

Sam sam at sam-i-am.com
Mon Sep 15 14:53:07 CDT 2003


tip update.

<tip type="Windows - grabbing filenames">
Explorer.exe (the windows file explorer) - and its Find integration - is
a great way visualize a set of files - perhaps filtered or sorted by
last modified. Now you want all their names so you can pass them as
arguments to a cmd line script, or batch file, or whatever.
I found a little utility written as a part of a PC Magazine tutorial
which will let do just that. It is FileGrab, by Michael J. Mefford
available at: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,5752,00.asp

You select and copy the files you are interested in from explorer (or
any open/save file dialog), paste them into FileGrab, and get them back
out as a plain text list. Not an extraordinary feat of Windows
programming I'm sure, but a hugely useful one for me.

- update-
I recently came across the Creative Element Power Tools (shareware, 
available at: http://www.creativelement.com/),
which includes a utility to do the same work (it shows up in your 
context menu as "Copy Filename").
It doesn't include the annoying line-padding that was the only downside 
to FileGrab (each line is padded with spaces to match the length of the 
longest filename.)
</tip>

The power tool collection includes a few other goodies I'm finding a use 
for, including a means to edit the rows/columns of the ALT+TAB menu 
(mine is now a more generous 12x3), a power rename for renaming many 
files quickly and to a pattern, and a keyboard mapping for new folder 
creation - CTRL N in any exporer window.

No affiliation, just an appreciative trial user.

Sam



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