- Export Folder Contents To Excel
- Export Folder Structure To Text File Folders
- Export Folder Contents To Text
If you work for a financial organization you would know and understand the importance of reporting. You would also know that it’s not just the data in the files that’s important but also data about the files. For example, you might need to keep track of the list of files, modification dates, file size, type etc. on a routine basis.
It can easily export folder contents to text. TXT is the most compact text format, so it is perfect for back up and archiving. Print Maestro reads your memory file structure and can record it into fact files of any format you need. You can save them as text documents, PDF files, spread sheets or HTML pages depending on your needs. Here's how you can convert the names of files or folders listing into text while using Windows 10; Select files or folders you wish to copy filenames. Next press 'Shift' button on your keyboard and Right-Click through your mouse.
In fact, such data is considered very crucial for statistical and analytical reasons. They can tell you the frequency of reporting, frequency of modification and report growth trends.
Now, the pain is in maintaining such records. It is not possible to manually note the details. Hence, you might find this Excel trick very useful in those scenarios.
Steps to Import Directory and File Details
Take a look at the image below. It is my documents folder and I have many important documents in it. And, I regularly export the file and directory list to an Excel sheet for maintenance.
Step 1: Navigate to the subject directory on Windows Explorer and copy the path to that directory. Here it’s C:UsersSandeepDocuments.
Export Folder Contents To Excel
Step 2: Now open a browser of your choice, paste the copied location on the address bar and hit Enter. I did it on Firefox. The URL will be prefixed by file:/// and contents of the subject directory will be rendered as a web page.
Step 3: Right-click anywhere on the web page and choose Save Page As. That will create an offline copy of the web page.
Step 4: Again, on Windows Explorer, navigate to the location of the file you just created. Copy the complete path.
By complete path I mean the location of the file and the file name. Something like, C:UsersSandeepDesktopDocuments.htm
Step 5: Open an Excel sheet. Switch to Data tab and select to Get External Data From Web.
Step 6: On the window that comes up, paste the complete path on the address bar and hit on Go. It will load the contents.
Step 7: Take note of the yellow arrows contained inside small yellow boxes. Clicking on them will select a frame from the web page.
Here’s a section of what I needed and what I selected.
Step 8: When you are done click on Import. In no time you will have the details on an Excel sheet. Everything arranged in column to column.
Do it With Command Prompt
There is one more way to get a similar result. Though I personally do not prefer it, I will put it down for you.
Open command prompt, navigate to the subject directory and type the following command.
dir > filename.txt, where filename is the name of your file
Then open an Excel book and import the contents of filename.txt to the sheet. During import you will have to define column separators.
The sad part here is that the data isn’t always formatted properly in this process. Thus, not my preference.
Conclusion
We spend a lot of time in organizing our computers and data. With regular usage we end up storing numerous important files in it. Then, to be sure that we do not lose them we depend on stuff like password protection, antiviruses and backups. To me the above trick is just an add-on to what we already have.
If at all due to some malfunction I lose my data and do not have backup (or lose the backup as well) I would at least know from my list the data that I have lost.
Export Folder Structure To Text File Folders
Top Image Credit: Monrovia Public Library
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Export Folder Contents To Text
Also See#backup #import/exportDid You Know
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Excel is extremely useful in working with lists, and in the modern world, a common listing requirement is the list of files and folders within a folder. So whether you are just indexing a folder for backup purposes, or you need the names of files in the folder to find missing items, Excel can easily do it. Below a method of how to export file names from a folder to excel.
How to export file names from a folder to excel
Although there are some VBA and other methods, the latest versions of Excel have made it exceptionally easy. All you need to make sure is that you have PowerQuery/ Get & Transform loaded. To check if you have it go look at the ‘Is PowerQuery Loaded pages‘, but see below how useful it is first.
![Export Folder Structure To Text File Export Folder Structure To Text File](/uploads/1/2/9/2/129277852/612558911.png)
To understand PowerQuery better, have a look at the online PowerQuery course but the simple steps are (Using Excel 2016):
- Click on DATA
- New Query
- From File, and choose From Folder (as shown below)
You then choose the folder that contains the files by browsing to it.
When you click OK, it will show you the list of files in the folder. You will note that it has listed all the folder information including the path.
And that is it. If you now click LOAD, it will load it back into Excel as a table which you can now work with (see below).
This is great if you have a folder with only files in it i.e. there is no other folder with other files. You will notice that PowerQuery won’t allow you to select that folder. You have to choose a folder which has no other folders in it! [Update- latest version of PowerQuery now allows this]
What can you do if you want to export folder and subfolders into a list in Excel?
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