DDFile Catcher

Transcription

1 DDFile Catcher DDFile Catcher is a program that documents your directory structure as well as selected properties of folder and files in your directory structure. These properties can be used for documenting provenance and capturing important properties about the folders/file when the report is run. Version 5 is available for Windows 8, 7, and Vista and Version 4 works with Windows XP and There is a 30 day free trial; a single user license is currently $ Version 5 To run the program: 1. Download and Open DDFile Catcher. 2. Use the Dropdown Get a List of Files and Folders ; select Browse for Folders, and All Files in a Folder and its Subfolders. Navigate to the folder you want to run the program on. (Note: There are multiple ways to do this. The most important thing is to make sure that all of the files appear in the window. If only the folder appears, the report will not include information about the files themselves.) 3. Click the Choose File Properties Tab: Choose the appropriate settings (the settings should remain the same as the last time the program was run). See Figure 2 for sample settings. a. You can search for properties to include. Clicking the box will include it on your reports. You can move properties up and down the list to reorder the results. b. Note: These settings can be modified after folders are dragged and dropped into the program. Additional fields can be added as required by file type or purpose. 4. Click the Output the File List tab to save. See Figure 3 for sample settings as listed below. Statearchives@mnhs.org Page 1 of 6

2 a. Select all under Additional file information b. Select Folders followed by files in them under File and folder output type c. Select CSV under the Output format. [One of many options.] 5. Click Save file list to Disk File. [as one option] 6. A box will appear asking for a comment to put in the file list. a. Enter your comment. [This will appear at the top of the CSV report.] NOTE: As of June 2013, this was not working. No matter what you typed in This is an example comment appears in the Excel file. You can skip this step or change the words in the Excel file and resave. 7. Open the file and verify that it fulfills your needs if necessary. Screenshots of Program and Example Settings Figure 1: Main Screen. Use the dropdowns to select files or drag and drop files. Make sure Search Subfolders is highlighted if drag and dropping files. Statearchives@mnhs.org Page 2 of 6

3 Figure 2: Example of a minimal selection of settings to run on each folder. Figure 3: Example settings for saving files list to CSV Version 4 Version 4 does not have as many options when it comes to selecting what information to collect about each file, but it has all of the basic information. The information and screenshots below describe a possible workflow. To run the program: 1. Download and Open DDFile Catcher. Statearchives@mnhs.org Page 3 of 6

4 2. Make sure the Search Subfolders tab is highlighted. 3. Drag and drop the folder of interest into the open window. 4. Choose the appropriate settings (the settings should remain the same as the last time the program was run). See Figure 2 for sample settings. a. Note: These settings can be modified after folders are dragged and dropped into the program. Additional fields can be added as required by file type or purpose. 5. Click Save the file list to save. See Figure 3 for sample settings as listed below. a. Select all under additional file information b. Select Folders followed by files in them under File and folder output type c. Select CSV under the output format. 6. Click Save file list to Disk File. [as one option] 7. A box will appear asking for a comment to put in the file list. a. Enter the name of the collection and/or purpose of report. [This will appear at the top of the CSV report.] 8. Open the file and verify that it fulfills your needs if necessary. Screenshots of Program and Example Settings Figure 1: Window to drag and drop files into. Notice Search Subfolders is highlighted. Statearchives@mnhs.org Page 4 of 6

5 Figure 2: Example of sample settings to run on each folder. Figure 3: Example settings for saving files list to CSV Page 5 of 6

6 Figure 4: Comment box for name of collection and other applicable notes if necessary. Page 6 of 6