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FileGrab (VERSION 1.00) by  Michael J. Mefford
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff Davis Publishing Company 
First Published March 4, 1997 
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About  FileGrab...
Purpose:  FileGrab lets you harness the power of Explorer's 
listing ability for use by other applications. When you drop files 
from Explorer onto the FileGrab window, you get a usable list of 
filenames rather than the files' contents. You can then save the 
list to disk, print it, or copy it into the clipboard for pasting 
into another application. View options let you choose which file 
characteristics (such as date, size, or attributes) to include 
with the file names. 

Usage:  To install FileGrab, copy the program files FILEGRAB.EXE 
and FILEGRAB.HLP to a subdirectory on your hard disk, and create 
an icon for FileGrab in your shell. When you first launch 
FileGrab, you'll see an empty window ready to accept file names 
from Explorer. For a quick demonstration of how it works, open 
an Explorer window (it's okay if the windows partially overlap),
highlight a group of files, drag them over to FileGrab, and 
drop them in its window. Voila!  There's your file list.

Note that you can copy file names from Explorer's Find utility, 
as well as from Explorer itself. You don't have to worry about 
anything happening to the files when you drop them on FileGrab. 
They'll stay where they are; only the file name data is copied 
into FileGrab. 

You can also minimize FileGrab, highlight the files in Explorer, 
and then drag them to FileGrab's button on the taskbar. The 
taskbar button itself won't accept drag and drop, but if you 
hold down the mouse button, the window will open and then you 
can drop the files. The advantage of this method is that you 
can still use FileGrab when Explorer is maximized.

Another way to copy the files without having to view both 
windows simultaneously is to use cut and paste. Select the 
filenames you want in Explorer, then select Edit|Copy from 
the Explorer menu, or right click on the selected files and 
choose Copy from the pop up menu, or simply press the Copy 
hot key Ctrl+C. After you've copied the file data to the 
clipboard, switch to FileGrab and paste the copied file names 
by selecting Edit|Paste from the FileGrab menu, or pressing 
the Paste hot key, Ctrl+V.

File names appear only one time in the FileGrab list, no 
matter how many times you add them. FileGrab considers the 
fully specified file name, including the path, when checking 
for duplicates. If you seem to see two occurrences of the 
same file in the list, check the Full Path item in the 
View menu and you'll see that they're actually different.

Explorer can be in any of its View modes (Large Icons, Small 
Icons, List, or Details) when you drag or copy files. 
FileGrab, however, always displays the file names in the 
style of Details mode. Once you have a file name list in 
FileGrab, you can use the View menu to select which of the 
file properties you want to include in the display. Checking
an item adds it to the display; unchecking the item removes 
it. The View options are Full Path, DOS Name, Size, Creation 
Date, Modified Date, Accessed Date, and Attributes. By 
default just the Full Path and Modified Date properties are 
displayed. If you turn off Full Path, just the file name 
will be displayed.

Once you have set the View options to display the file name 
list as you want it, you can save the list to disk, print 
it, or copy it into the clipboard. To enable the Copy feature, 
you must first select the files you want from the list. Click 
the Copy to clipboard button or select Copy from the Edit 
menu to copy the selected file names as ASCII text to the 
clipboard. If you select Cut instead of Copy, the file names 
are removed from the FileGrab list as well as copied to the 
Clipboard. The Clear button removes the selected items from 
the FileGrab list without copying them to the Clipboard. 
To clear the entire FileGrab list, choose Select All from 
the Edit menu or press the hot key Ctrl+A, and then click 
the Clear button.

When FileGrab copies the selected file names to the Clipboard, 
it ensures that the columns for each displayed file property 
will neatly line up vertically by making all the entries in 
a particular column the same number of characters. Fields 
that have fewer characters than the longest entry in the 
column are padded with spaces. Fields are separated with tab 
characters so that the columns line up even when a 
proportional space font is used, and so they will be 
formatted correctly when pasted into a spreadsheet.

When saving the list to disk, the default format is the 
same as when copying to the clipboard; FileGrab pads columns 
with spaces so that they line up. You can also choose to 
separate the file properties with commas instead of spaces 
and a tab character (the CSV or comma-separated values 
option). This option is useful if you're importing the list 
into a database or spreadsheet. To save the file list to 
disk, click the Save As button or select File|Save As.... 
The Save as type drop-down filter lets you choose between 
the .txt and .csv formats.

When you print a file name list, by default FileGrab uses 
a ten point Courier New font so the characters in the 
columns will line up. To select a different font, select 
Printer Font under the File menu. You do not have to use 
the same font for printing and screen display. To select 
a different font for screen display, choose File|Screen 
Font. Note that the font is not saved when you copy the 
list to the clipboard. You'll have to reselect the desired 
font from within the application where you paste the list.

FileGrab supports in-place editing, like Explorer, in 
case you want to make any changes to the list. To shift 
into edit mode, select a file, wait a moment, then click 
on it again. The original file won't be renamed; only the 
text that is sent to the clipboard, file, or printer will 
reflect your changes. You can also sort the list by 
clicking on the column header buttons. A second click on 
the same button before clicking on any other will sort 
the list in descending order. You can also resize the 
columns by dragging the left or right edge of the header 
button above it. FileGrab remembers all your custom 
settings.

Support for FileGrab:
Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine 
can be obtained electronically  in the discussion area 
of PC Magazine's Web site and in the Utilities section 
of ZD Net's TIPS Forum on CompuServe. For PC Magazine's 
Web site go to the URL http://www.pcmag.com/discuss/ 
and select the Utilities area. You can also access the 
Utilities discussion area from the utility's download 
page.  The authors of current utilities generally 
monitor the discussion area every day.  You may find 
an answer to your question simply by reading the 
messages previously posted. If the author is not 
available and you have a question that the sysops 
can't answer, the editor of the Utilities column, who 
also checks the area each day, will contact the 
author for you.

For ZD Net's TIPS Forum (GO ZNT:TIPS). The authors of 
current utilities generally visit this forum daily. 
You may find an answer to your question by reading the 
messages already posted in the forum. If the author is 
not available and the forum sysops can't answer your 
question, the Utilities column editor, who checks this 
forum each day, will contact the author for you.

Michael J. Mefford is a contributing editor of PC Magazine.
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