When a group of files is selected, how can I copy just the file names?

Never knew you could do that. Maybe this will get you halfway there;
In your scripts folder you have some print window options. Maybe you can print and copy the text from the new 'document'.
Or you can write an Applescript yourself to just 'get filenames'

I'm not sure why you can't, you should be able to. I just opened a random folder and selected several files and a folder, hit Command-C, and now I'll paste them here:

TiginNW2Leo.png
RealName
Raw
PSE6effects
previewicns
tutorials

The window was in icon view, so the alphabetical order is still borked. What do you see on your clipboard? In Finder, go to the Edit menu and select "Show Clipboard"--there should be a text listing of the items you selected and copied. Is there? If not, what happens if you try the same thing in a test user account?

If you don't have a test user, create one in System Prefs->Accounts. Don't do anything to the account, leave it just as Apple creates it, then log in to the test account and see if things work normally there. BTW, "normal" means the alphabetical order will only be preserved in Column view.
Francine


Francine
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Funny that, I can't either. If I do as you suggest Francine my Mac will past the actual items into the document. That goes for Mail and Stickies.

It has worked as expected since previous systems, only that Leopard has made it more versatile. One surefire way I've used since way back is to select the files, do a copy (CMD-C), open a blank TextEdit document, paste in (CMD-V), select the entire contents of the document (CMD-A), copy it in again (CMD-C), the paste it onto the desired application (Mail, etc.). The intermediate, TextEdit, step ensures that only the text-format filenames get loaded on the clipboard, instead of all the metadata (like, for example, a Finder window-to-window copy/paste that copies the files themselves).

I'm also at 10.5.4, just had forgotten to update my profile.

One "gotcha" can be if the application, such as Mail, is actually able to DO something with the files. In the case of Mail, it can add the content of many sorts of files to the message, or add the files to a message as attachments. That's why the Clipboard will say the content is "text/items" since what will be pasted depends on the destination. This is relatively new in OS X--I remember being astonished when it first turned up.

TextEdit, IF it is in Rich Text Format, can also handle a number of different sorts of files. If you want to use TextEdit as the "intermediate" destination to get a text list, be sure you go to the Format menu item, and select "Make Plain Text" before you paste. Actually, since I use TextEdit mainly for tasks, such as hand coding HTML, I have its default behavior to open all new windows in plain text, then if I actually want some formatting, I change it to Rich Text. In Rich Text it will accept pasting of all sorts of graphics files, so you see the jpeg, gif or png, you can even paste sound files in as actual sound files (and they'll play, too), plus the icons for folders and other files (such as PDFs).
Francine


Francine
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