I COMMAND THEE TO PRINT A DIRECTORY--PART 3 OF 3

In a previous tip, we showed you how to turn a directory listing into a *.txt file (that you can manipulate and print from your word processor: Assuming you want to print a listing of drive C by creating the text file C:\My Documents\DirListing.txt, open an MS-DOS Prompt window, type

dir C:\ /S > C:\DirListing.txt

and press Enter. Then, in our last tip, we showed you how to send a directory listing directly to your printer: Follow the steps above, but use the following command line.

dir C:\ /S > prn

(Tip: To print a listing of only one folder, as opposed to an entire drive, type its path after the C:\ in the above command line.)

Now let's look at a couple of switches to help you customize your listing. (By the way, the /S switch in the above commands instructs DOS to search all folders and sub-folders.)

Want to print a listing of all the directories and subdirectories on the specified drive, without including all the files inside them? Use the /AD switch as follows:

dir C:\ /AD/S > prn

To print a detailed listing (for example, including long filenames) of all the files in a specified folder, without including that folder's sub-directories, use the /V switch as follows:

dir C:\{path to directory} /V > prn

(Tip: To add sub-directories and their files to this detailed listing, add the /S switch as follows:

dir C:\ {path to directory} /V/S > prn

And of course, if you want to send the information to a *.txt file instead of directly to the printer, just substitute the 'prn' in any of the above commands with the path and name of a TXT file, like so:

C:\DirListing.txt

last updated: Monday, 24. May 1999 09:47:13 -0500