#320925 - 01/04/2009 21:29
Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/07/1999
Posts: 5549
Loc: Ajijic, Mexico
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Is there a utility (or maybe even something already in Windows Vista) that would allow me to do a search in Windows Explorer and redirect the results to a text file?
At a C:> prompt it's easy enough (Dir /s *.mp3 > songs.txt) but the search I'm doing can't be done at the command level because I am searching for specific words in the comment field of the ID3 tags of the files, which Explorer does quite nicely. But, all I get is a screen display and I'd like the filenames in a text file.
How can I do this?
tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
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#320926 - 01/04/2009 21:45
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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addict
Registered: 01/03/2002
Posts: 599
Loc: Florida
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I don't know of a way to do this with any built in Windows tools. FileLocator Pro will let you save the results of a search. You can use it for 30 days then it needs to be registered. They still have the freeware version called Agent Ransack available but I don't remember if you can save your search results with it.
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Chad
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#320927 - 01/04/2009 21:59
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: Attack]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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This site talks about a "Windows Desktop Search cmdlet" that can be used in a powershell. It appears to provide similar functionality as mdfind in OS X, and may do what you want. Windows Powershell can be downloaded here for Vista.
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#320929 - 01/04/2009 23:12
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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C:>findstr /?
Searches for strings in files.
FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]
/B Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
/E Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
/L Uses search strings literally.
/R Uses search strings as regular expressions.
/S Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
subdirectories.
/I Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
/X Prints lines that match exactly.
/V Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
/N Prints the line number before each line that matches.
/M Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.
/O Prints character offset before each matching line.
/P Skip files with non-printable characters.
/OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
/A:attr Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"
/F:file Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/C:string Uses specified string as a literal search string.
/G:file Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/D:dir Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
strings Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename
Specifies a file or files to search.
Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with /C. For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or
"there" in file x.y. 'FINDSTR /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for
"hello there" in file x.y.
Regular expression quick reference:
. Wildcard: any character
* Repeat: zero or more occurances of previous character or class
^ Line position: beginning of line
$ Line position: end of line
[class] Character class: any one character in set
[^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
[x-y] Range: any characters within the specified range
\x Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
\<xyz Word position: beginning of word
xyz\> Word position: end of word
For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference. Edit: Wrong command before This would work. findstr /m /i sometext *.mp3 > filesfound.txt
/s allows searching into subdirs.
Edited by gbeer (01/04/2009 23:34)
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Glenn
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#320931 - 01/04/2009 23:52
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: Attack]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/07/1999
Posts: 5549
Loc: Ajijic, Mexico
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I don't know of a way to do this with any built in Windows tools. FileLocator Pro will let you save the results of a search. You can use it for 30 days then it needs to be registered. They still have the freeware version called Agent Ransack available but I don't remember if you can save your search results with it. Below is the feature list for Agent Ransack: Agent Ransack™
Regular expression support for file name and contents Highly efficient search algorithms Immediate file contents search results Export results to Text, CSV Expression Wizard Basic and Advanced interface Detailed help file Command line options The fourth feature is the one that interests me! It would be nicer if the program could somehow use the index that Vista has created for its own search purposes. The Vista search (across 131 GB of MP3 files) is literally instantaneous. It actually completes the search and displays the results before I finish typing in the search terms! I have Agent Ransack running as I type this, and it looks like it is going to take about 40 minutes to complete the search. I didn't parameterize the search with size and date limitations; perhaps if I had done that it would have sped up the search if it didn't have to do a text search on files that would have been disallowed by size/date. Oh, yes! Search finished, I re-ran it with size/date restrictions, instead of 40 minutes it ran in 90 seconds. Much faster, and results were identical. Filtering only by date instead of date and size took an extra 15 seconds. Saving to the text file worked just fine. Thanks for showing me this. tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
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#320933 - 02/04/2009 00:20
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/07/1999
Posts: 5549
Loc: Ajijic, Mexico
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This would work. findstr /m /i sometext *.mp3 > filesfound.txt Almost. I also need the /C parameter because it is a multiple word search term. D:\_MP3\SPOKEN WORD>findstr /m /i /s /C:"california state library system" *.mp3 > filesfound.txt works, but without being able to limit by modification date the search will take 40 minutes to run. Thanks for that command, though -- I didn't know there was a findstr DOS tool. Is that a relatively new addition? The last time I was really familiar with DOS commands was back in the DOS 6 or maybe DOS 7 days. tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
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#320938 - 02/04/2009 01:14
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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enthusiast
Registered: 06/08/2002
Posts: 333
Loc: The Pilbara, Western Australia
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FINDSTR /G: is quite useful, for example, if you have a master file containing all employee details, and say an RFID scanner at the entrance to a restricted workplace which generates a file containing just the RFID number from their tags, you can identify the employees that have accessed that area using eg.: FINDSTR /G:"dailyfile.txt" "masterfile.txt" > who_was_here_today.txt
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Peter.
"I spent 90% of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted." - George Best
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#320939 - 02/04/2009 03:41
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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Don't really know how long findstr has been around. I don't think it was part of dos2.1. I think it was in NT.
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Glenn
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#320946 - 02/04/2009 11:29
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
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Really dude, a lot of your posts of late suggest that you would really benefit from installing Ubuntu in place of the DOS you're currently struggling with.
Seriously. You come across as a prime candidate.
Cheers
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#320948 - 02/04/2009 12:14
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Doug rails against MacOS because it's "different". I don't think that Linux is going to work for him.
That said, I agree with you.
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Bitt Faulk
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#320955 - 02/04/2009 15:36
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
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Doug rails against MacOS because it's "different". I don't think that Linux is going to work for him. At the very least, he could install cygwin.
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#320964 - 02/04/2009 21:04
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/07/1999
Posts: 5549
Loc: Ajijic, Mexico
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Doug rails against MacOS because it's "different". I don't think that Linux is going to work for him.
That said, I agree with you. I was a Unix user long before Windows came on the scene. (It was a variant called Xenix, running on an Altos mini-computer in the mid to late 1980s.) I'm pretty much indifferent to the OS that I use as long as I can get the computer to do what I need. The prime consideration is what software runs on the OS, and much of the software I use regularly is not Linux compatible. Infothek scanning software; MP3 Tag Studio; Excel; IMSI Turbo FloorPlan; Nero; emplode; Rio Music Manager; Rosetta Stone; Total Recorder; Tunebite; ZDoom; these are just a few of the programs I would have to do without or purchase Linux-capable replacements and go through the learning curve of changed operation. Yes, Windows can be frustrating at times, but (as in this case) there are almost always workarounds that make it less painful than the changeover to Linux. I'm not suggesting that Windows is better than Linux, only that the process of changing to Linux would be difficult. tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
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#320967 - 02/04/2009 23:25
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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That came off rather more mean-spirited and contemptuous than I meant. Sorry about that.
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Bitt Faulk
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#320972 - 03/04/2009 00:58
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
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much of the software I use regularly is not Linux compatible. Infothek scanning software; MP3 Tag Studio; Excel; IMSI Turbo FloorPlan; Nero; emplode; Rio Music Manager; Rosetta Stone; Total Recorder; Tunebite; ZDoom; these are just a few of the programs I would have to do without or purchase Linux-capable replacements and go through the learning curve of changed operation. - Scanning just works without fuss on Linux, and even more so if you take care to purchase HP equipment.
- There are tons of MP3 tagging utilities, and they're no harder to learn/use than any others.
- Excel is just another spreadsheet, like kcalc or OO. Nothing special there, other than the price.
- Floorplan is probably good -- run it on windows inside kvm if you really need it.
- Nero is totally inferior to k3b on Linux. Learning to use k3b takes about 10 seconds or less.
- emplode -- use Jemplode instead, or again run it inside kvm.
- Rosetta Stone works perfectly fine on Linux -- SWMBO used it to learn Italian last year.
- Things like Total Recorder are simply unnecessary on Linux.
- Dunno about the other two.
- Really. "Learning Linux", *especially* for somebody like you, is a non-issue. And the apps don't cost anything, and are totally legal to use and pass along.
But, hey, you are the retiree.. spend your fixed income how you like -- or not at all with Linux. Cheers
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#320975 - 03/04/2009 02:36
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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[*]Dunno about the other two. Tunebite appears to be a way to break DRM off media files. More info would be needed on what exactly Doug uses it for to find an alternative. ZDoom is just a windows specific version of the Doom game. Plenty of ways to play Doom on pretty much any OS or device these days since the code has long been GPL. And pretty much nothing in that list prevents a migration to Mac OS X either. I've seen a lot of people switch to OS X recently from Windows, and their first comments do tend to be centered around "Application X doesn't exist for OS X". Breaking down what they used an application for usually results in finding an equally capable alternative. And in the end, switching between one OS and another is usually no less or more painful then switching between Windows XP and Windows Vista.
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#320977 - 03/04/2009 04:02
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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Tom, to be fair, Mac OS does lack a full featured MP3 tag editor. That said, I'm finding that I can do a lot more and do most of it easier using iTunes and some AppleScripts. I think that's the biggest reason we don't see any good stand-alone editors.
On the Windows side I just started re-using a few programs I bought long ago, including Tag&Rename and Dr.Tag. Unfortunately I'm not finding very much to do with them since also starting to use MP3Tag which provides a better interface, especially for editing arbitrary/custom tags.
But with virtualization software it's easy as pie to run Windows or Linux on Mac hardware - all at the same time. That way you get the best of all worlds on hardware that's generally second to none.
I'm really liking the new MBP 17. I also use Path Finder instead of Finder and it supports the type of searching and file-output that Doug was originally looking for built-in.
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#320980 - 03/04/2009 10:40
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Mac OS does lack a full featured MP3 tag editor. For free? Yeah. But Media Rage, Jaikoz, and The Tagger all seem to be pretty good. And Picard's not terrible for free, especially since it's extensible.
Edited by wfaulk (03/04/2009 10:56)
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Bitt Faulk
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#320981 - 03/04/2009 11:20
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: mlord]
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veteran
Registered: 25/04/2000
Posts: 1529
Loc: Arizona
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Excel is just another spreadsheet, like kcalc or OO. Nothing special there, other than the price. I don't think I agree with this one. I use OO's Calc on occasion (when I can't be bothered to wander from the lab back to my desk) and it really is just a shadow of what Excel can do. The scripting in Calc seems archaic compared to what comes with Excel. The integration between other apps in the Office family feels lightyears beyond OO.
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#320983 - 03/04/2009 11:37
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: Tim]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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I don't think I agree with this one. I use OO's Calc on occasion (when I can't be bothered to wander from the lab back to my desk) and it really is just a shadow of what Excel can do. The scripting in Calc seems archaic compared to what comes with Excel. The integration between other apps in the Office family feels lightyears beyond OO. It seems to have fitted your needs better than mine then -- the last time I wanted Excel to do something which KOffice KSpread couldn't do, Excel couldn't do it either. (It was a while ago and I can't remember the exact details, but it was something to do with taking a column of dates and producing a histogram of activity per month. I found a feature in Excel called "Histogram", but there was something irremediably wrong with its bar widths or its axis labelling or something, and that's before I started attempting histograms with non-equal bar widths. Or maybe it didn't like histogramming date fields, or something.) Peter
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#320984 - 03/04/2009 12:55
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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veteran
Registered: 01/10/2001
Posts: 1307
Loc: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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(It was a variant called Xenix, running on an Altos mini-computer in the mid to late 1980s.) Arggh to both... I assume it was an 80x86-based Altos, not the even rarer 68000 I worked on. At least the 68000 had almost-proper System III UNIX instead of Xenix....
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#320989 - 03/04/2009 15:12
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: Tim]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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The scripting in Calc seems archaic compared to what comes with Excel. Scripting? You mean like the VBScript crap? That may be true, but, IMO, if you're really using that, you're using the wrong tool anyway. If not, I'm pretty sure that Calc supports all of the functions that Excel supports natively. The only real incompatibility I've seen is that Excel will accept either commas or semicolons as delimiters for function arguments, and Calc only supports semicolons. Or something like that. The integration between other apps in the Office family feels lightyears beyond OO. What kind of integration are you wanting? Because I don't think I want any.
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Bitt Faulk
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#320992 - 03/04/2009 15:52
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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The integration between other apps in the Office family feels lightyears beyond OO. What kind of integration are you wanting? Because I don't think I want any. The ability to generate a chart in the spreadsheet off the data there, to then include in a word processor document, or a presentation. The ability to pull in data from a database like an address book. The ability to pull in media files organized in my photo application for a desktop publishing job. And so on. There are plenty of good reasons to want integrations between the apps like Office, or iWork/iLife provide. And doing it by allowing each app to integrate with each other, instead of making one big monolithic apps seems decent to me.
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#320993 - 03/04/2009 15:56
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
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OO can do much or all of that.
Certainly more than enough of it for the typical retiree or home user.
Cheers
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#320994 - 03/04/2009 16:05
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: wfaulk]
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veteran
Registered: 25/04/2000
Posts: 1529
Loc: Arizona
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The scripting in Calc seems archaic compared to what comes with Excel. Scripting? You mean like the VBScript crap? That may be true, but, IMO, if you're really using that, you're using the wrong tool anyway. If not, I'm pretty sure that Calc supports all of the functions that Excel supports natively. The only real incompatibility I've seen is that Excel will accept either commas or semicolons as delimiters for function arguments, and Calc only supports semicolons. Or something like that. Maybe scripting is the wrong term, probably mean macros. VBA vs OO's Basic. After dorking around with it for a bit, the Calc one seemed a lot more limited. That could've just been inexperience on my part, though. The integration between other apps in the Office family feels lightyears beyond OO. What kind of integration are you wanting? Because I don't think I want any. I have one program that reads in data from a simulation, calculates a bunch of metrics I need, spits out a bunch of graphs and charts to a presentation and fills in a skeleton form of a report. That kind of integration.
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#321003 - 03/04/2009 18:44
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: wfaulk]
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old hand
Registered: 09/01/2002
Posts: 702
Loc: Tacoma,WA
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Save and Copy Filenames it's a free Windows Explorer shell extension so you can right-click on files you select in Explorer and copy them to the clipboard. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page).
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#321145 - 06/04/2009 20:41
Re: Utility to pipe from Windows Explorer to a text file?
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
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[...]run it on windows inside kvm if you really need it.[...] Heck, before going so far as to run kvm, I'd suggest try running all these apps with WINE. It can run a pretty significant number of Windows apps, including Floorplan, it appears.
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