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HOME TOPICS ABOUT ME Most Windows users probably find out before long that they can't print a list of files within a folder. |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 Windows tricks: Printing a directory, copying files intelligently, installing fonts temporarilyFev. 11, 2001 By Al Fasoldt Copyright ©2001 Al Fasoldt Copyright ©2001, The Syracuse Newspapers Sometimes you just can't get there from here in Windows. No matter how hard you try, sometimes you can't do simple things. This week, I'll tell you how to do three common operations that Windows tries to keep you from doing. Printing from a directory: Most Windows users probably find out before long that they can't print a list of files within a folder. Microsoft left that function out of Windows when it introduced Windows 95 six years ago. Microsoft usually does not revise Windows to add functions it left out previously, so Windows users have been left to fumble for their own ways to print directory listings. As an expert on Microsoft's old MS-DOS operating system, I was able to get around this omission in Windows by printing from a DOS prompt, but I don't recommend this method to anyone else any longer. There's a much better way, using a program that handles everything for you. And it's free. It's called "Print Directory." It's a freeware program. You can download it from http://widgetech.com/prtdir3_1.htm Copying only certain files after you've already started copying all of them: I often point out that computers are really dumb. Here's a case in point. When you're copying files and discover that you're about to copy ones that already exist in the destination folder, wouldn't it be great if you had a way to selectively copy only certain files right then? What you need is a way to copy just the files that don't exist in the destination folder, for example. Enter Servant Salamander, my choice for file copying in Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows 2000. Select a group of files in one of the two panels you see when you run Servant Salamander, then use the Copy command (or press F5) to copy them to the other panel, and Servant Salamander will always give you a chance to modify the copying criteria as soon as it finds a possible conflict. It's free. Get it from http://www.altap.cz/index.html. Version 1.52 is the one I recommend. Using a font without installing it: Why should you have to apply for political asylum just to use a new font in a letter you're writing? Windows expects you to install the font. That's a lot of trouble. The solution is so sublime that not even Microsoft's own experts know about it. Any time you double click on a font file, Windows installs it temporarily. Windows runs its font viewer to show you the font, but the only way the font viewer can show the font is for Windows to install it. Keep the font viewer running but move it out of the way (minimize the window if you know how to do that) while you use the font in your document. After you're finished and you no longer have the document open, close the font viewer. |