How to Copy a List of Files to Excel

Since the start of the pandemic, working from home has increased rapidly, making being at the computer our daily routine. In the course of our work, we've likely encountered the need to copy a list from an Excel file ; in this article, we'll show you how.

Steps to copy a list of files to Excel

If you want to copy a list of files to Excel quickly and easily, complete the following steps:

Here you can read about: How to Group a Pivot Table by Months in Excel

 

• Step 1:: Open your computer's dialog box by pressing the "Start" + "R" keys simultaneously.
• Step 2:: When the “Run” dialog box appears, type “cmd” and press “enter”.
• Step 3:: I once started the “Symbol of the system”, type “cd” followed by the path of the folder you want to copy and press “enter”. Check out this example: “cd c:\users\Cristina\MyDocuments\Products”.
• Step 4:: then type «dir /b > list.txt» and press «enter». By running this command a file called «list.txt» has been created in the folder you want copy list of files to excel.
• Step 5:: Open the file “list.txt” with “Notepad” and view the name of the files in the folder from which you created the list.
• Step 6:: then select the text by pressing the “Ctrl” + “E” keys at the same time and then right-click the “Mouse” and press “Copy”.
• Step 7:: once the text has been copied, open “Excel” and in a new document simultaneously press “Ctrl» + «V» and your list will be pasted into the Excel spreadsheet.
• Step 8:: if you want to save the document press “F12” and save the list of files to excel in the location you want.

By the way, in Windows Vista and Windows 7 versions you can skip step 3. Just navigate to the folder where you want to copy the file list to Excel , click on the address bar, delete the contents and type "cmd", press "enter" and the "Command Prompt" will open in the folder.

Another method to copy a list of files to Excel

In this second method, I will show you in a more practical way how to copy a list of files to Excel using Dropbox.

With this program you will only have to click with your “Mouse” and you will automatically create a document with the list of files you want to copy into Excel.

How to copy a list of files to Excel with DropBox

Below are the steps you need to follow to copy a list of files to Excel quickly and easily.

• Step 1:: You must download a “Script” that will allow you to perform the action of generating a list of files. You can download them from DropBox.
• Step 2:: Once the file is downloaded, double-click it and press “Extract”.
• Step 3:: After you have extracted the folder, copy the file that ends in “.bat” and paste it into the folder from which you want to copy the list of files for Excel.
• Step 4:: Now you just have to double-click on the file you just pasted and a document called 0000_list.txt will automatically be created, which will be the list of files you want to copy to Excel.

You can save the script you downloaded to any location you want and apply this same method as many times as necessary.

Why do we copy a list of files to Excel?

As we mentioned at the beginning, since the beginning of the pandemic and with the inclusion of new mobility restrictions, the need to work from home has become our new normal.

For this reason, we have found it necessary to learn various techniques, processes and tips when sitting in front of our personal computer in order to carry out daily activities efficiently.

Thanks to technological advancements, we have a variety of applications and software packages to optimize our daily tasks. Excel offers several solutions, such as copying a list of files and pasting them into a document within this fantastic application.

What is Excel?

In the Office package offered by Microsoft, Excel is considered the main work tool since it allows us to carry out various types of activities due to its ability to work with numerical data.

Unlike Word , which is the quintessential word processor, and PowerPoint, with which we can create presentations and even edit certain types of images, Excel allows us to organize data through columns and rows with which you can perform various mathematical calculations and arithmetic operations.

In this sense, with the inclusion of this powerful tool in our daily activities we will have at hand solutions such as copying a list of files to Excel to then analyze the data and generate the reports or reports relevant to the activity.

File list

When you create a list of files and paste it into Excel, what you are generating is a list with the names of the files contained in a specific folder and emptying it into a “.txt” document, which you can then paste into a spreadsheet and be able to analyze it in the desired way.

I will present you the following example:

Let's say you are a warehouse manager, and you have various processes on your computer that are stored in folders. One day you had to indicate the number of customers who buy cleaning products. Can you imagine transcribing them one by one? This would be very inefficient.

However, Windows has several options with the ability to copy the contents of the folder into a text file (“.txt”), to then be pasted into Excel.

Tips for copying a list of files in Excel

You've probably already learned how to copy a list of files in Excel ; we just recommend patience, intelligence, and dedication to achieve the desired results.

You might also be interested in: How to Copy an Excel Sheet to Another Workbook – Tutorial

Conclusion

Remember that by copying a list of files into Excel, you can list the contents of your folders and bring greater order to your daily tasks. If you'd like to download the Dropbox app, click here . We hope this brief explanation has helped you streamline your daily activities.