Copying The Text or File Names of Multiple Files in Finder

[Sossity]

I have a bunch of photos on my mac, and I would like to copy the text or the file names of them all, not the actual photo files, and copy paste the file names into individual rows in a spreadsheet. Is there a way to do this? I am faced with going through all of them one by one, and selecting and copying each ones file name, and then pasting that into rows in a spreadsheet. I am looking for a way to avoid doing it like that, and be able to copy the multiple file names at once.

 

[fatTribble]

It sounds like something you could write a Shortcut for. I believe the primitives are there to iterate through the files in a Files app folder. You should be able to get the name. I’m not sure how you’d output the name though. Maybe others can help.

 

[BrianBaughn]

This is how I do that:

Select all the files and copy. Open TextEdit and change the (new) document to Format>Make Plain Text. Paste into the document.

You can then select that text and paste it into a spreadsheet or wherever.

 

[dwig]

I use LibreOffice Calc for this type of thing on a regular basis. I simply select a range of files in Finder, copy (CMD-C), and paster (CMD-V) in a cell and that cell and those below it are filled with the filenames.

With some apps, you can use Edit>Paste Special>Paste as text (exact wording varies) to paster the filenames as text rather than pasting the images.

When the target app lacks a Paste Special function I use BBedit as an inbetween "translator" app. I copy and then paste into a BBedit document. I then select the pasted text in BBedit, copy, and then paste into my desired target app. BBedit can only paste text so it doesn't get confused with the files/images themselves.

 

[Sossity]

This is how I do that:

Select all the files and copy. Open TextEdit and change the (new) document to Format>Make Plain Text. Paste into the document.

You can then select that text and paste it into a spreadsheet or wherever.

Thanks, that worked perfectly, and saved me a bunch of time going through and hand typing all this.

 

[Sossity]

Thanks all that has saved me some time.