Spreadsheet from file list?

[Catlady]

Is there an easy way to create a spreadsheet from a file list? I am not using any book management program, and I would just like to have a spreadsheet that I can set up with maximum flexibility, so I can add comments, book prices, source, etc. For new e-books I can just make manual entries; I want to be able to get a list of all the e-books I've already got on the computer without retyping. I'm using Windows (XP, Vista, and 7 Starter).

I've found a couple of places with what purport to be directions, but they might as well be Greek. I tried following them to a point, then got lost when what was on my computer screen didn't match what their directions said should be there.

If it's complicated, I'll just retype everything, but I thought it would be worthwhile to ask first. Thanks!

[Blue Tyson]

Something like:

dir *.* > ebooklist.csv

or (*.whateverfiletype)

at the CMD prompt once you are in the right directory (or pass the dir command the directory path if you prefer)

[FF2]

I would not mind something systematic, too. My "list" is of the various freebies and really is one very long text file at this point where I grab descriptions posted on this board or on Amazon or other descriptions. Generally, title and author on one line and then the book descriptive text in a following paragraph. I've generally throw a series of dashes --------- between books.

I'm thinking of either opening or importing into Excel and hoping for some method of segregating some of the data so I can do an alpha sort on either title or author.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Something like:

dir *.* > ebooklist.csv

or (*.whateverfiletype)

at the CMD prompt once you are in the right directory (or pass the dir command the directory path if you prefer)

Thanks. I used the first command, and it gives me a list of the subdirectories, but not of the files within the subdirectories.

I have subdirectories two and three deep, so it I had to go into each one to list the files, it would be as time consuming as just typing everything directly into the spreadsheet. Any ideas?

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Thanks. I used the first command, and it gives me a list of the subdirectories, but not of the files within the subdirectories.

I have subdirectories two and three deep, so it I had to go into each one to list the files, it would be as time consuming as just typing everything directly into the spreadsheet. Any ideas?

In that case...

dir /s/b *.* > ebooklist.csv

[Catlady]

Thanks. Still not getting the file listing, though.

The first command (dir *.* > ebooklist.csv) gives me a list with the timestamp, <DIR>, and the directory name.

The revised command (dir /s/b *.* > ebooklist.csv) gives me a list with the filepath for each directory.

Neither one gives me the subdirectories, or the files within the subdirectories.

[FF2]

It should work. Are you at the folder level to get the full folder list?

If your books are in say:

c:\library

you can do

dir c:\library /s/b > list.txt

or you can already be in c:\library when you run the command

dir /b/s > library.txt

You will wind up with a lot of extraneous info that will need editing but you should have all of your books.

edited to fix based on corrections posted below (thanks for catching that).

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by FF2

It should work. Are you at the folder level to get the full folder list?

If your books are in say:

c:\library

you can do

dir c:\library /s/b > list.txt

or you can already be in c:\library when you run the command

dir /s/s > library.txt

You will wind up with a lot of extraneous info that will need editing but you should have all of your books.

just noting a typo that might throw off a non-dos friendly person so here is a quick fix:

dir /s/b > library.txt

for the OP that is the same as were you not in the directory, FF2 just made a typo and not sure FF2 caught it and no need for you to feel frustrated when your results don't seem right.

[snipenekkid]

btw, if you want to just keep adding to more to an existing file use a different pipe:

dir /s/b >> library.txt

That appends the directory being scanned, in this case whatever directory you are in at the time, to the end of the existing file. So if you use the original command FF2 presented only using the "append" pipe rather than the create new file pipe, you just need to change the directory names:

dir c:\{library-name} /s/b >> c:\{directory where you are keeping the book list file}list.txt

This is a simple command but more powerful than many people know. If you get stuck while in the CMD (also called a DOS window) just type dir /? which will bring up a list of options for the DIR command. Oh, btw, as a rule DOS commands are NOT case sensitive though some have switches (the /option thingy is a switch) can be case sensitive. I think that was a silly choice but, some are what they are. Just follow the help opened using the /? switch.

Last if the /? brings up a list too long for your screen, you can just use the left scroll bar or use a slightly different way of bringing up the list. Type it this way:

dir /? | more

This lets you view the info returned one page at a time. But the scroll bar on the right of the DOS window is the easiest option. There are tons of other ways to make this work but FF2's is the easiest. I am sure there are free tools out there which will build a text file or even a spreadsheet file out of a directory listing automagically for you. One could Google for that as well.

have fun!! DOS is not hard...try Unix or Linux if you want cryptic and hard, but POWERFUL command line stuff. After all MS-DOS was pretty much a sripped down set of commands used by Unix or even CP/M anyway.

[ebsebs]

Catlady,

If all you need is a listing like this:

Top Folder
----------
Book1
Book2
Book3
:
:

TopFolder\SubFolder1
--------------------
Book1
Book2
Book3
:
:

TopFolder\SubFolder2
--------------------
Book1
Book2
Book3
:
:

TopFolder\SubFolder2\SubSubFolder1
-----------------------------------
Book1
Book2
Book3
:
:

then you are welcome to use a copy of a very simple program I wrote.

I wrote it for a different purpose, but it will produce a list of your folders and subfolders,
and the names of the books in each folder. Just run the program and select your top-level folder.
It will create a text file called "BookList.txt" in that folder, which you can import into Excel.

The program is tiny, just 12KB (KB, not MB), and is completely free of any malware, viruses (virii?), etc.
You can verify this by scanning the program with your favorite anti-virus software.

If you are interested, I'd be happy to send you a copy via e-mail, as I don't have anywhere convenient to post it.

Regards,
Eric

[snipenekkid]

also here is one app that will do the trick as well:

http://malektips.com/filelist-output...-database.html

On that page is a link to a program to create the file as well:
http://www.jam-software.com/filelist/

You can then just import the file into your spreadsheet program no matter what spreadsheet app you are using.

There are tons of options to make this work, I like the look of Eric's output a lot, nice job!

[FF2]

The append option >> could create duplicates if always used from the highest folder as opposed to only working on new folders. But this may be getting to arcane.

I do use a similar method for "indexing" my dvd disks

dir f: /s/b >> dvd.txt (where f: is my dvd drive)

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by FF2

or you can already be in c:\library when you run the command

dir /b/s > library.txt

You will wind up with a lot of extraneous info that will need editing but you should have all of your books.

edited to fix based on corrections posted below (thanks for catching that).

Aha! Yes, this works! Thank you so much!

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

btw, if you want to just keep adding to more to an existing file use a different pipe:

dir /s/b >> library.txt

That appends the directory being scanned, in this case whatever directory you are in at the time, to the end of the existing file. So if you use the original command FF2 presented only using the "append" pipe rather than the create new file pipe, you just need to change the directory names:

dir c:\{library-name} /s/b >> c:\{directory where you are keeping the book list file}list.txt

I'm going to use the generated txt file as the jumping-off point for a spreadsheet. Could I use this command to add new items from a separate directory directly to the spreadsheet (using the filename for the spreadsheet, of course!)?

have fun!! DOS is not hard...try Unix or Linux if you want cryptic and hard, but POWERFUL command line stuff. After all MS-DOS was pretty much a sripped down set of commands used by Unix or even CP/M anyway.

I started out on DOS, actually, but didn't use it very much before we switched to Windows. I had to dredge up misty memories, and actually was pretty proud of myself for even remembering how to get to a directory! (I cannot, however, remember how to go UP from a directory to a higher-level directory; I had to keep exiting to do that--pathetic, huh?) Thanks so much for your help!

[Catlady]

Thanks so much for the offer, Eric. I think I'll just work with the output I got using FF2's instructions, since it seems easy enough to clean up for the spreadsheet.