Get a List of Filenames from Windows Directory into Excel

This video shows how to copy file names from windows explorer to Excel for further modification. You would think it would be as easy as performing a copy and paste with mouse clicks, but it doesn't work that way. There is a workaround by using the command prompt and redirecting the output to a text file.

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#excel
#msexcel
#doughexcel

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Please watch: "Convert Table in a PDF File to Excel"
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[tstfhayden]

Thanks ! You saved hours of my life when my only option looked like typing out a list by hand ...

[JuhoLeeChannel]

there is a faster method
highlight the files and right click on one of them while pressing shift down
this gives you the 'copy as path' option
copy the paths and paste it in the spreadsheet
use formula to extract file names

[fpet]

in windows 10 you can copy and paste from CMD directly just highlight and copy paste

[singtracks]

wow at last, ,,a clear concise easy to follow vid without silly background music..
why cant all how to vids be like this....brilliant

[alexc.]

But if you want to do it a quick way: Select files in win explorer, Home/Copy as Path, paste in Excel, Ctrl + H for Find & Replace, put *\ in find, Replace All = you have only the file names (with extensions, if your folder settings are such)

[JudeBarak]

Hi Doug,
Thanks for another great tip.
Another work around (I think it is simpler): Copy the folder address into the web browser address bar and hit enter. You get a linked list of all the files. Copy & paste into excel. Remove the unnecessary data.

[prasad]

open note pad copy this dir /o /b /s >name.csv and save as name.bat, run it your directory ...that's it

[MattBookbinder]

how would you ommit the file format in the imported text (.txt, .mp3) or choose to only import a curtain file type?
very helpful video by the way... THANKS

[vinodkumarasamy]

Awesome you saved my time, great thanks a lot

[sumthingwong]

use “dos dir” have Problem，if the file have “&” not use “dir”。
For example :APPLE &YE
will error 。
use export.bat↓
c:/
CD/window/tee
dir >test.txt or test.xls
but
d:/
cd/APPLE &YE
dir >test.txt or test.xls
must ERROR

[ninesfine]

There are not enough likes in this video. This is SO helpful. I've had this video bookmarked for years.

[arichardson]

There is a faster method - after selecting the images in a folder, try the "copy path" function within the clipboard ribbon/tab in Excel.

[LiquidSnake]

what about subfolders and their content?

I have bunch of files inside several folders? I wanted to get their date info so I can easily sort it out in excel.

[silvanaweinaug]

What software are you using to create that image with the rough edges?

[rubenmoerbeek]

You can get rid of the redundant information by adding an option. The cmd command would look like this: dir *.* >contents.tx /b /on
The /b option means "bare format",
The /on option sorts the result, it means "order" "name"
You can find all options by typing [dir /?] (without the square brackets).
These options saves you a lot of manipulation of the data. You can open the text file and then copy paste the result, instead of importing and choosing the formatting, which I think is very annoying.

[MEZHGANO]

Holy shit, thanks for such easy old school trick.
I spend the whole day searching how to achieve this by python scripts or VBA macros...

[Jesuscuratodos]

press shift + right click and now thers a option to copy the path. Right click and Paste in a excel file and cut the unnecessary information.

[gopalakrishnarao]

Thanks for helping to view the files with cmd. remembering the olden days with CD, MD, and del. Thank you once again very useful tip.

[SJQuirke]

Nice one Doug - I liked how nice and clear this was - thanks a stack man - I am NOT a cmd user and I got it - so... kudos to you

[jamesmacintosh]

Excellent tutorial. Thanks a lot. But I have a slightly different issue to deal with. I have more than 1000 files in a single folder, they are all images transferred from my mobile phones. They are named image 1.jpg, image 2.jpg and so on. There is an intentional space in the names of these images/files. When I followed your tutorial everything went fine except the fact that while using delimiters I chose two Tab and Space and the final result was - all the filenames were divided into 2 separate columns, ie "image" (in one column) and "1.jpg" in another column. I want it to be one column only ie "image 1.jpg", I know that the intentional space within the filenames is causing this problem, but how do I deal with this? Thanks a lot.