How do I select these files .. XP vs 7

[jaffamuffin]

Hi all

Often I have a situation where I need to select a certain subset of files (usually too many to individually select), and these files will be named longer than the majority.. by this I mean suffixed with a number, or a letter etc. (Please see screenshot, note the mouse pointer is not visible but it is located at the bottom left corner of each selection box)

In XP/Win2k I would draw a selection box that touched only the long files, and it would select them. I could easily count them, move them, drag and drop them, delete them, INVERT SELECTION, etc etc

I see no way to do this in Windows 7. I disabled full row select but it does not do what I expected. I can't select only files with a certain name length.

I have attached a picture example. And before anyone says sort by time (as the A.jpg have a earlier time stamp, this is almost never the case)

 

[jaffamuffin]

This is drving me insane, does anyone have an idea ? I thought doing it in list view rather than details would do it but maybe only in classic mode?

I need to count down 34 A's I can't just select until the status bar says 34, I have to actually count them myself - I thought thats what computers were for!

 

[nommy the first]

Hello Jaffamuffin,

Two things come to mind;
The first is to Ctrl+Click them, but since it's 34 A4's that's going to take a long time.

And the second thing is to use the search box to your advantage (note: this will only work if you named them like displayed in your screenshots).
Go to the folder that you want to copy the photo's from, and type the following in the search box;

System.FileName:*A OR "A.jpg"

This way Windows will only search files that end with an A or with A.jpg.

This way of searching is called Boolean Search and it can be used in lots of ways. For more information and handy ways to use it to your advantage, please read this page on microsoft.com.


Good luck and keep us posted,
Nommy

 

[jaffamuffin]

OK thanks - I actually need the first file after the 34th A. So I:

1. search for *A.jpg
2. then count down 34 files by selecting them
3. remember the filename.
4. clear the search box
5. scroll down to find the filename i remembered
6. open the next image file


It works but it's still an brilliant example of how in Windows 7 everything seems to take twice as many clicks and steps as anything in XP ever did.

Compare to XP.
1. Start drawing a selection box down wards and stop when the status bar says 34
2. Open the next file.

 

[boohbah]

another way to select multiple files is to have the check box visible when selecting.



to enable the check box you neet to click organise /folder settings / click the view tab and tick the box "show check boxes to select items".

 

[jaffamuffin]

Hi. Thanks, but using check boxes means I need to be a precision demon on the mouse, I might as well use ctrl click, as that gives me a bigger target to hit, also the files aren't every 34. And the check boxes dont show until I'm on the file making it even more difficult. I just need the 34th record which is comprised of various sized records the start of which denoted by the file with the A. So the actual number of files will vary every time. So I need to count 34 As an open the next file.

The only point of the check boxes as far as I can tell is so people don't need to shift click or ctrl click to select non-contiguous selections without using the keyboard.


It looks like If I don't want to be searching and then scrolling about for ever, I may need to just write some kind of script to do this task for me. Can I get e.g. powershell to highlight a file in explorer for me? hmmmmmm edit -- yes -- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/320509/is-it-possible-to-open-an-explorer-window-from-powershell

 

[4wd]

Hello, you may want to take a look at FreeCommander - freeware file manager
Can do a lot of nice stuff & has some very good selection tools, you may find something useful, good luck.

(btw, clever way of using the xp selection!)