Append to text file?

December 12, 2005 10:39 AM

What's an easy way to append to a text file in Windows XP, like Quicksilver does in OS X? I know about the solution for ActiveWords, but I'd rather not shell out for what seems like basic functionality.
posted by monju_bosatsu to computers & internet (11 comments total)

1. Start -> Run
2. cmd
3. copy filename1.txt +filename2.txt +filename3.txt file.txt

This will take the contents of filename1,2,3.txt and stick them together into file.txt.
posted by Rothko at 11:05 AM on December 12, 2005

Right, but I want to append an arbitrary line of text to an existing file, not combine the contents of multiple files. For example, say I have todo.txt, and I want to be able to add new items to the bottom (or top) of the list. If I have to create a new file for the items I want to add, I might as well just open and edit the list directly. Instead, I'd like to be able to invoke a quicksilver-like tool to add arbitrary strings of text to a file of my choosing.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:17 AM on December 12, 2005

if you just want to append the output of an exe into an existing file, you can do something like (also from cmd prompt)

whatever.exe>>file.txt

(to create a new file.txt, you would do whatever.exe>file.txt)

I am not familiar with activewords (or quicksilver, for that matter), so if I am just not getting it, post back with more details...
posted by stupidcomputernickname at 11:18 AM on December 12, 2005

copy con >> file.txt
type stuff here
hit control-D

That should do it, I think, unless you need a GUI.
posted by Rothko at 11:24 AM on December 12, 2005

Or, also from the command prompt:

echo text you want added to your file >> file.txt

PS: The command prompt doesn't understand ^V or shift-insert, but you can right click and choose paste.
posted by cactus at 11:39 AM on December 12, 2005

The echo command is getting close, although I can't figure out how to get linebreaks in.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:17 PM on December 12, 2005

Ah, ^ is line break.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:19 PM on December 12, 2005

Nevermind.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:44 PM on December 12, 2005

I can't believe you're willing to go to all this effort to append text to a file, when it will probably be just much work to open it with notepad and add to the file that way.
posted by antifuse at 1:20 AM on December 13, 2005

I wasn't willing to go to that much extra effort; hence this question. You'll note that the link in my comment above pretty much solves the problem, though, and with free software to boot.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:59 AM on December 13, 2005

For this exact thing - keeping random notes - I use Notepad, strangely enough.

I made a file called scratchpad.txt in My Documents, and dragged it to the Quick Launch bar to make a shortcut, right next to the Show Desktop one.

One click on the little scratchpad icon in Quick Launch and Notepad opens my file, damn near instantly. Ctrl-End takes me to the end, I type my stuff, Alt-F4, Y, done.

The good part about this is it also works for taking things off the to-do list :)
posted by flabdablet at 7:06 AM on December 13, 2005