Any "file to text" utility?

Hi, is there any way for me to copy anything from anywhere, and convert the entries to text.

Example, I run a Music workstation using two monitors.

Sometimes I want to log all the samples kept on a removable drive, I would like to be able to open the drive /copy everything I see, but only post to notepad the text, not the wav files ( or whatever is there).

example two:

I use the find facility to search 3 H.d's for WAV files, I would like to be able to highlight all the "Found" wav files, and copy them as text ( not the GIGS of info, just the text entries).

I have tried Snagit, but for the size of pages I use, the scroll function doesn't seem to work too well.

I have looked a google till my eyes have fallen out, I have tried Printkey2000.

All I want to do is be able to Shift click anything I see, copy it to the clipboard, but paste out only text.

Please help.

Running win xp pro

 

Here's something to try:

"Printing the Contents of a Folder with a Mouseclick.

You cannot print the contents of a folder from Windows Explorer--or can you?
If you want to do it fast & easy, without knowing what's behind it all, click here. If you want to do it yourself and

learn something, read on!

In Windows Explorer, open the View menu, click Folder Options and select the File Types tab. In the listing of file

types, select Folder (not File Folder!) and click on Edit. Now click on New, and the New Action dialog box will

appear. In the action box type &Print Folder Contents and in the Application box you must enter the following

command line:

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /C DIR %1 /O:N > PRN

It should look like this:

Click OK and Close. Now when you rightclick a folder in Explorer, the menu will show a Print Folder Contents

command (you can give this command any name you like, by the way). When you click this command, the contents of

the folder will be printed. An empty DOS box will flash on the screen for a second.
(By the way: the ampersand in "&Print" is only to underline the "P" in the Explorer pop-up and to make the option

accessable with the keyboard--by typing a P, of course.)

Customizing your Print Folder Contents command

You can customize the way your folder is printed by changing the command line. Let's go over this by taking a look

at the command line mentioned above.

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /C: This will launch the command line interpreter, necessary to carry out the

command that follows. The /C switch will close the command line interpreter (the DOS box) after the command is

executed.

DIR %1: This command will produce a listing of all the files and subfolders in the folder you rightclick in Explorer.

%1 is a variable: it will be substituted by the path and name of the rightclicked folder. To the DIR command, the

following switches are added:
/O:N: the O is the order in which files are listed. You have to add an additional switch preceded by a semicolon

(optional) to determine which sortorder is used. The /O:N switch will sort the files alphabetically by name. Other

switches are /O:E (alphabetically by extension), /O (by date, oldest to newest), /O:S (by size, smallest to

largest). You cannot combine these switches. You can reverse the orders by adding a hyphen, e.g. /O:-D will sort by

date, newest to oldest. The final O switch is:
/O:G: will display subfolders ahead of files. /O:-G will do the reverse. Without this switch, subfolders will be

included in the general sortorder.
Finally, > PRN will direct the output of the DIR command to LPT1, your printer port. Without this, the display of

the folder contents would be "printed" to standard output, i.e. your screen (in the DOS box).

Some other useful DIR switches:
/S: will display not only the subfolders, but all the files in the subfolders;
/A: allows you to you specify files attributes. /A:H will display hidden files, /A:S will display system files, /A:A

will display files with an archive attribute, /A:R will display read-only files, /A will display no files, only

subfolders. Here also you can use a hyphen; e.g. /A:-R will not display read-only files. If you don't use any of

these switches, system files and hidden files will not be displayed/printed, even if in Explorer you selected the Show

All Files option (in View, Folder Options, View). If you combine the switches, only files with all the specified

attributes will be displayed.
/B: will display only the name and the extension of each file.
/W: will display only name and extension of each file in five columns, saving you some paper.
/L: will display folder names in lowercase.

Saving Folder Contents to a text file

You could also add an item "Save Folder Contents" in the same way. This is an example of a command:

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /C DIR %1 /O:N > c:\dir.txt

This way, the contents of the folder will be saved to a file called dir.txt on the C:\ drive, a file that will be

created the first time you use the function. Notice the difference in the next command:

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /C DIR %1 /O:N >> c:\dir.txt

Here you have a double angle bracket. With a single bracket, the context of dir.txt will be overwritten each time

the Save function is used; with the double brackets, folder contents will be added each time. "

Have fun!

 

Luga,

thanks for your answers.

I am running a DAW, I have no extras on that computer for maximum performance.
No Modems, printer ports, com ports anything that is not needed has been ditched.

So sending stuff to Printer is not an option

But I will try your suggestion out for the Folder to text command line suggestion.

Bear in Mind I am a beginner, If It works I'll be mighty pleased

Thanks again


Dan

 

Get the old powertoys "sendtoX ". This has the rightclick option of "send to clipboard as name ". Do your search, highlight your list, right click and select sendto, scroll to "clipboard as name ". Paste this list into word processor of choice. Notepad will do.

Or here's an alternative:[see the Powertoys]
http://www.gabrieleponti.com/software/

=============
NOTE* You may have to edit the list if it's just the file names you want. The technique above includes the full path.

 

Thanks ann .

Only problem is this:

You don't get the send to context menu for most of the things I need.

For instance, If I use the "find" facility to search 3 Hard drives, 2 Cdrom drives and a zip drive to find Wav ( Or aiff, or mp3) called "Bass" ( for example) when the list appears on my screen, I can't " Send to" the whole list.

And as these items reside all over the place I can't use a program like Karen power toys Dir print, which will print Folder contents.

What I need I think is something that can take the clipboard contents and just export the TXT Names only.

Unless there is another way.


Thanks
anyway

 

Simple old dos will do what you need.
dir /b /s "c:\my documents\my music\*.wav" > "c:\my documents\wavlist.txt "

This command will find all files with the WAV extension in that folder and any folder connected to it, and put the names of them in the file wavlist.txt.
Leave out the /s and it will just do the one folder.
Leave the /b.
Just keep the folder name in quotes like in this example and you should not have a problem with long filenames.
If you do certain folders frequently, just create BAT files with that line in it and the correct folders, and just type in the name of the BAT file at the prompt and it will do what you need.
When you Save As the BAT file using Notepad, enclose the name in quotes so it does not end up as Wavlist.Bat.Txt.
"Wavlist.Bat "