How can you copy or move 2 or more files at once into any folder?

[Alan Kilborn]

@Cletos said in How can you copy or move 2 or more files at once into any folder?:

So there is no other way to do what it seems I am wanting to do? …add on or so?

The “add on” you could use would be Windows Explorer…?

[Cletos]

Ah, that sounds like a bold idea. But I would carefully doubt that it would make extremely much sense, because it would probably be very inefficient. Would rather use the “add on” Notepad.

Thank you very much anyway.

[Coises]

There is something that might work for you, though it’s probably not quite what you hoped for.

You can multi-select files in the Document List. When you right-click, there are only a few options, the last of which is Copy Selected Pathnames. Choose that.

Now, open a new tab and paste. You’ll get a list, one per line, of the full paths of the files you selected.

Now make a zero-width retangular selection at the left edge. (To do that, click in the document at the start of the first line, then Shift+Alt+click at the start of the last line.)

Type copy ", which will insert that at the beginning of each line. Now press End on your keyboard — that will move the cursor in each line to the end of the line. There, type another quote ("), a space, and the full path to the folder where you want to copy the files.

Select all (Ctrl+A) and copy (Ctrl+C).

Now, open a Command Prompt and right-click where you would normally type. That will paste what you copied into the command prompt and execute the commands (since they each end with a return).

[PeterJones]

@Cletos ,

it would probably be very inefficient

I don’t know why you rejected Windows Explorer as being “inefficient”. Win+E is pretty fast to launch it, and Windows Explorer has all the features you want. And File > Open Containing Folder > Explorer is an easy way to open Windows Explorer to the right directory (and Shortcut Mapper can assign a keyboard shortcut to it). So that’s multiple strikes against your “inefficient” claim

Would rather use the “add on” Notepad.

The app we are talking about is called “Notepad++”. The thing called “notepad” is the Windows simple text editor. There is a difference.

Terminology aside, there is an “add on” (plugin) for Notepad++, which is called the “Explorer” plugin: that plugin has an explorer-like interface, and allows selecting multiple files and the right-click context menu has the “copy” and “paste” actions, so you can do explorer-like things from the Explorer plugin inside Notepad++.

[Cletos]

There is something that might work for you, though it’s probably not quite what you hoped for.

Ah, yes, very good idea, some more steps (unlike hoped), but actually (exactly) what I wanted to achieve (to transfer a bunch, maybe 50, 100 txt files at a time open in Notepad actually without losing them in the document list / the tabs - but after transferring I could open them in a single step / process - e.g. selecting and dragging and dropping them over Notepad) from the new folder, I assume). Thank you very much!

I don’t know why you rejected Windows Explorer as being “inefficient”.

Ah, sorry, I actually didn’t do that, I would think (although I am thinking Explorer generally is). I meant the method seems to be quite “inefficient”.

I don’t know why you rejected Windows Explorer as being “inefficient”. Win+E is pretty fast to launch it, and Windows Explorer has all the features you want. And File > Open Containing Folder > Explorer is an easy way to open Windows Explorer to the right directory (and Shortcut Mapper can assign a keyboard shortcut to it). So that’s multiple strikes against your “inefficient” claim

It sounds like I had to transfer every single file manually. Which, if it were, would actually be quite inefficient.

The app we are talking about is called “Notepad++”. The thing called “notepad” is the Windows simple text editor. There is a difference.

Yes, many thanks for the information, excuse me. I had simply assumed, for the sake of convenience, that if there were talk of a program called Notepad here, it could only be about the program where it would fundamentally be possible in this forum.

Terminology aside, there is an “add on” (plugin) for Notepad++, which is called the “Explorer” plugin: that plugin has an explorer-like interface, and allows selecting multiple files and the right-click context menu has the “copy” and “paste” actions, so you can do explorer-like things from the Explorer plugin inside Notepad++.

OK, I will have a look at it, thank you!

[PeterJones]

I don’t know why you rejected Windows Explorer as being “inefficient”.

Ah, sorry, I actually didn’t do that, I would think (although I am thinking Explorer generally is). I meant the method seems to be quite “inefficient”.

Sorry, I don’t know of any way to interpret the words, “I would carefully doubt that it would make extremely much sense, because it would probably be very inefficient.” other than rejecting the suggestion. So, while you might claim you didn’t reject the suggestion, from any reasonable reading of your statement, you seemed to be rejecting the suggestion

I don’t know why you rejected Windows Explorer as being “inefficient”. Win+E is pretty fast to launch it, and Windows Explorer has all the features you want. And File > Open Containing Folder > Explorer is an easy way to open Windows Explorer to the right directory (and Shortcut Mapper can assign a keyboard shortcut to it). So that’s multiple strikes against your “inefficient” claim

It sounds like I had to transfer every single file manually. Which, if it were, would actually be quite inefficient.

This isn’t a Windows training forum, but it should be quite obvious to anyone who has used Windows Explorer and selected multiple files that they can copy them all, simultaneously, in exactly the way you indicated you wanted to.

The app we are talking about is called “Notepad++”. The thing called “notepad” is the Windows simple text editor. There is a difference.

Yes, many thanks for the information, excuse me. I had simply assumed, for the sake of convenience, that if there were talk of a program called Notepad here, it could only be about the program where it would fundamentally be possible in this forum.

Because dropping characters from a product’s name until it’s no longer the original product by a different one seems a great way to communicate clearly? Oh, wait, no, it’s the exact opposite.

For example, C++ and C# are not the same as C, and asking about C in a C++ or C# forum (depending on their strictness for on-topicness) could get you warned about being off topic; if you then told them you dropped the ++ or the # “for convenience”, they would (at best) ridicule you, and quite likely ban you as a troll.

For all a reader here can know, you may have just been mistaken and were asking truly a question about the Microsoft product rather than asking a question about Notepad++ – and before you argue that it’s “obvious”, please note that over the years, there have been plenty of people here who have asked questions about how to use Microsoft’s notepad.exe, despite the “Notepad++” branding all over this forum – it can, and does, happen. Which is why I am always quick to explain to people that they need to be specific in what they are typing, and to point out that questions about notepad.exe are off topic here.

[Coises]

@Cletos said in How can you copy or move 2 or more files at once into any folder?:

what I wanted to achieve (to transfer a bunch, maybe 50, 100 txt files at a time open in Notepad actually without losing them in the document list / the tabs - but after transferring I could open them in a single step / process

If that is your need, you might want Sessions. I haven’t used that feature myself, but the description at that link sounds like it might help you.

[Cletos]

Sorry, I don’t know of any way to interpret the words, “I would carefully doubt that it would make extremely much sense, because it would probably be very inefficient.” other than rejecting the suggestion. So, while you might claim you didn’t reject the suggestion, from any reasonable reading of your statement, you seemed to be rejecting the suggestion

Apologies again, yes, of course, that is a very good interpretation, but I certainly didn’t mean to come across as rejecting the suggestion, for which I’m very grateful. It might just not be ideal for my purpose.

This isn’t a Windows training forum, but it should be quite obvious to anyone who has used Windows Explorer and selected multiple files that they can copy them all, simultaneously, in exactly the way you indicated you wanted to.

Yes, I understand, and I’m all the more thankful for the quick training. But how can I specifically select only the files that are open in Notepad in one go (without having to do it manually—which seems completely inefficient—for each individual file in this add-on Explorer)?

Because dropping characters from a product’s name until it’s no longer the original product by a different one seems a great way to communicate clearly? Oh, wait, no, it’s the exact opposite.

Yes, of course, I completely see that now. I simply shouldn’t have omitted the two ‘+’ signs. My apologies once again."

If that is your need, you might want Sessions . I haven’t used that feature myself, but the description at that link sounds like it might help you.

Ah, yes, completely missed that, great idea (for having a back up for the open files), many thanks. But transferring files with Sessions (or separating the files being open in Notepad from all the others) is not possible, isn’t it?

[PeterJones]

@Cletos said in How can you copy or move 2 or more files at once into any folder?:

But transferring files with Sessions (or separating the files being open in Notepad from all the others) is not possible, isn’t it?

No, as you phrased it, it is not possible.

But it actually depends on what your goal is, versus what your imagined implementation is, whether you can accomplish your goal directly or not.

If your goal is to be able to easily open all the files currently open in Notepad++ again at some future date, and you just thought that moving them all to some common folder was a way to do it, then a Session is what you want, and you do not need to copy/move the files at all.

If your goal is to just copy/move all the opened files to a specific directory, there is no way native to Notepad++ to do that, and I don’t know of any plugins which do it without effort on your part. However, using a scripting plugin like PythonScript, it would be pretty easy to cycle through all the files currently open in Notepad++, and then copy or move those files to a new directory. But you would have to write that script (and given that you didn’t think of doing it, I am doubting you have PythonScript or know enough Python to be able to make it work).

[Cletos]

If your goal is to just copy/move all the opened files to a specific directory,

Yes, exactly, that’s it. But Coise’s method is essentially exactly what I wanted (just with a few extra steps, which isn’t a problem). And combined with Coise’s idea of using sessions (as a backup, for example, if the folder path is temporarily unavailable for Notepad, it now seems impossible to determine/find and reopen only the files that were open without using sessions), what I wanted has essentially been achieved.

Thank you very much!