simple copy/paste from finder into numbers problem

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Level 1

19 points

simple copy/paste from finder into numbers problem

Hello,

I have a very frustrating problem that I hope to resolve.

In Finder I have various folders full of named files.

For example: ant, bat, cat, dog, egg.

I want these file names to appear in a list in individual cells on my spread sheet.

In Excel I would simply select the items in Finder then copy and paste the list into the spread sheet.

In Numbers when I repeat the same procedure I end up with a list that is as long as the spreadsheet!

Basically pasting into numbers repeats the selection until it runs out of cells

eg: ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg,ant, bat, cat, dog, egg, etc, etc, etc..............

So then I have to find the end of the list and start deleting the extra cells.

Please tell me I am doing something wrong, this is so annoying as I need to copy selections over from Finder every day!!!

The only partial solution I have found is to make a selection in Numbers that is the same number of cells long as the number of names I have copied from Finder and then I can paste into that selection. But thats far too complicated for such a simple task?

I hope someone can help me with my dilemma?

Richard

imac 24, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 4gb ram 1.5tb HD

Posted on Nov 1, 2010 3:20 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 1, 2010 8:11 AM in response to Rich K.

Hi Rich,

iWork apps are perhaps too smart for low level tasks such as you are trying to do. I think what is happening is that they are expanding the listings in your finder into component files, that you may not even know are there, and giving you a cell for each component. It isn't an infinite expansion as you imagine, but it's not what you want either.

I would suggest that you keep the app TextEdit open since you do this routinely, and use what I call a TextEdit pass-through or cleanup of the file names.

Select and Copy the entries that you want to use, in Column View in Finder, then Copy from Finder and Paste and Match Style into TextEdit.

This should give you a clean list in TextEdit that you can Copy/Paste into Numbers.

Let us know how this works for you.

Jerry

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Answer 2

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,825 points

Nov 1, 2010 11:18 AM in response to Rich K.

I never saw this funny behavior.
Given the contents of the folder,
the paste action may return :

(1) nothing
(2) a list of multiple occurences of embedded items
(3) a list of filename plus the contents of some files. I got that with folders embedding python files.

Happily, this is a new use for my good old huge script :

--


on run
 set the clipboard to (the clipboard as text)
end run
--

which is always available in my Scripts menu.

Copy from the Finder
Run the script
Paste in Numbers.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 1 novembre 2010 19:18:04

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Answer 3

Rich K. Author

Level 1

19 points

Nov 2, 2010 4:01 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

merci beaucoup, Yvan.

The script solved my problem!

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