copying groups of filenames as text in Finder

R

retro_cycler

Registered
Under OS 9 and earlier I was able to select files in the finder, hit cmd <c> to copy the text of these filenames to the clipboard, and then be able to paste that text into documents, email, etc. I do this all the time... I need this functionality.

Now I'm running OSX v.4.8 (Tiger) and I find I can't do that anymore. When I do a cut and paste, for example into mail, the files themselves come right along with the filenames. In fact, the filenames don't paste at all, just the files!

I don't want to have to click into each filename individually (in the finder), to copy and paste the name into mail one at a time. That would take a long time for a larger set of files.

Does anyone know a workaround, or a way to do this for a group of files all at once?

thanks,

Boris
 
'Does anyone know a workaround' ...

Suggestion 01:
Have 'TextEdit' (or mostly any other text editor application) launched and in 'plain text' view (select the 'Format, Make Plain Text' menu item). Paste your copied files and / or folders into a 'TextEdit' document window.

Suggestion 02.
Create an 'AppleScript' ('/Applications/AppleScript/' folder) script containing ...

try
set the clipboard to (the clipboard) as string
end try

. Save, or copy, the '.scpt' file to your '~/Library/Scripts/' folder. You can then access the script, after selecting the 'Finder' items, via the 'Script Menu' in the menu bar - which is made present via the 'AppleScript Utility' (also in the '/Applications/AppleScript/' folder). The result is a list of selected 'Finder' items in 'text' format.

Suggestion 03:
Create an 'Automator' ('/Applications/ folder), add 'Finder' library 'Get Selected Finder Items' action, then replace '(* Your script goes here *)' with ...

set dTextfolge to ""
repeat with i in input
tell application "Finder" to set dTextfolge to (dTextfolge & ((displayed name of i) as string) & return)
end repeat

set the clipboard to dTextfolge

... into an added 'Automator' library 'Run AppleScript' action; and, save the code as a 'Finder' contextual menu plug-in. The result is a list of selected 'Finder' items in 'text' format.

-----

Welcome to MacOS X - where you, the user must do multiple steps to hopefully accomplish the simplicity of System 9 and earlier.
 
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