Productivity Tip #13: PathCopy for fast pathname copying!
One of my favorite and most-used apps that I might not have talked about before is PathCopy. It copies a filename with full path info to the clipboard *instantly*.
Ever wanted to be able to instantly click on a file and copy its full path to your clipboard? For example, let’s say you want to send a link to a file on the network to someone, or perhaps you’re trying to open a file in MAX and don’t want to click through all the dozens of subdirectories to find it. Now you can do it with PathCopy! It’ll let you copy the long filename, the short filename (DOS 8.3 style), the entire pathname, the entire URL, anything.
Since it’s a Windows shell extension, you can right-click a file OR folder inside any Windows Explorer window and quickly click through it. It even handles multiple files and copies them all to your clipboard with appropriate linebreaks! It’s tremendously useful, and I wish I’d had this years ago! Maaaaajor time-saver. I use this dozens of times a day.
PathCopy overview: http://home.worldonline.dk/ninotech/freeutil.htm#pathcopy
Download link: http://www.simtel.net/product.download.mirrors.php?id=57104
Now I’m curious: What are YOUR favorite productivity widgets? Be they websites, hacks, plugins for preexisting apps you use every day, or useful little applications that brighten up your life, I’m curious to see what you guys use to wring that extra little bit of productivity out of every minute of the day. :)
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January 12th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Actually I get my recommendations for tools from you :)
Over time I gave ToDoList a try and I’m still using it today. I also gave Plaxo a try and I’m still using that, too. Now it’s Path Copy and during the next weeks I’ll check whether I like it or not.
And while you’ve also highlighted services such as Netvibes for which I don’t have the slightest use - the tools I _do_ use make up for them. ToDoList is a special one among them. I’ve been using it for like half a year and don’t wanna tackle my day-to-day work without it anymore. I’ve tried other task-tracking alternatives, too. For example during last month’s 24th Chaos Communication Congress Stephan Schmieder gave a lecture about David Allen’s Getting Things Done techniques and specifically presented his own experiences with a software called ThinkingRock.
ThinkingRock is all about Getting Things Done - it makes use of pretty much everything David Allen suggests. However, it’s written in Java and that sucks on ice as The Scout likes to put it. Its interface is slower than similiar application s in C# or C++. And due to its wealth of features it feels bloated. I mean sometimes with ToDoList the term “feature creep” crosses my mind but with ThinkingRock it just didn’t feel right to me. Eventually I figured I’m be better off with ToDoList.
I’ve thought about tools I could savely recommend and the one thing I came up with is WebDrive. I use Windows XP; one day I wanted to map a web server as a network drive so that I could then up- and download files to the FTP server as if it were a regular drive in my machine. I learned that an Apache web server could be upgraded with a so-called WebDAV module which would allow me to do just what I wanted.
Installig the WebDAV module on my server wasn’t an option at that time so I looked around for other solutions and found WebDrive. It connects to FTP servers and maps them as network drives.
Now I use the identical TDL file for ToDoList on more than one machine. No more manual copying - just launch the tool and start working. Pretty convenient.
Greetings,
Sven
January 13th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
cygwin. :-)
January 14th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I use the Windows single-level explorer (i.e. start->run->c:) instead of the giant, mouse-centric Windows Explorer. That’s mostly because I don’t like reaching for the mouse when I don’t have to, but it also has little bonuses like not needing PathCopy. The path to your current location is always up there in the address bar. F6, copy, paste. You do have to type in the file name or make a second go-round to copy paste the file name, though, if you’re not going to a particular directory.
For any keyboard-centric users who would still rather not spend most of their time at the command-line, I recommend ditching Windows Explorer.
ThinkingRock looks really interesting– I’m going to check it out.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:51 am
I use ToDoIst (notice no L) as my homepage, i couldn’t imagine keeping track for all my work without it.
I also use RocketDock and many of the little things that Jon has suggested and has made my life easier.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
sven-Erik:
Oh, that’s awesome! I’m really happy to hear you benefit from the neat little apps I yak about on here. :) ToDoList and Plaxo are a couple of my favorites, in fact, especially since the new Plaxo rolled out. I hope it’s true that Facebook is buying them out… that’d be amazing. Synergy!
What’s the Chaos Communication Congress? It sounds alluringly alliterative!
ThinkingRock… sounds like TDL is superior, but I’ll still check it out.
WebDrive… that totally kicks ass, especially the way you use it. I’m sure I can find even more crazy uses for that myself. I already recommended it to someone I know that could use it. Thanks for the recommendations!! :)
Weigel, dork! :)
Matt, I generally use Windows Explorer as well, but sometimes I’m navigating in an Open File dialog box inside another app, discover a file I need a path for, and can’t copy from the address bar.
However, I did not know that using F6 would immediately jump to the address bar. Thanks!! :)
Stan, I’ve heard rumbles about ToDoIst on LifeHacker but I’ve never checked it out. I will now and see what all the hubbub’s about, thank you! :)
Also, glad you like RocketDock!
Thanks for the comments, guys! :)
January 17th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Hi Jon,
the Chaos Communication Congress is for hackers what the Game Developers Conference is for us. Three days of lectures about how to creatively use hard- and software, lectures about security-related topics and about miscellaneous stuff such as - this time - Getting Things Done.
It’s organized by the Chaos Computer Club which in turn is a hacker organization. Every year in late December people meet in Berlin here in Germany like game developers meet in San Francisco.
(In this context hackers are computer enthusiasts - not necessarily people involved in computer security. Or insecurity.)