How to Use - Free Combine Text Files 4dots
Free for personal and commercial use
How to merge two text files
To merge text files add text documents to the list and then press on the "Combine Text" button.
To specify the Text files documents that you want to merge :
Press on the "Add" button of the main screen and then select the PDF files you want to add. You can also press on the "Add Folder" button to add the entire contents of specific folders.
You can also drag-and-drop Text files documents or folders with text files to add them.
To remove a text file from the list, select it on the grid and then press the "Remove" button. To clear all the text files from the list press the "Clear" button.
How to specify file filter
To specify file filter go to the "File Filter" tab and there enter the file filter (semi-colon separated) using wildcards or regular expressions.
You can add and remove more file filters e.g. *.txt;*.ini;*.bat;*.cfg or *.* for all files.
How to specify file encoding
To specify output file encoding go to the "File Encoding" tab and choose to autodetect encoding from first file, use default, or use specific encoding.
How to specify file header
To specify file header go to the tab "File Header" and check the checkbox "Add Text". In the text box you can specfiy the file header and also add variables to it such as filename, file creation date, file last modification date, document length, number of words e.t.c. In order to do that, select the variable from the option list and press on the "Add Variable" button.
Moreover, you can add blank lines after the file header just check the appropriate checkbox and enter the number of lines.
Additionally, you can specify to add file header only to the first file.
How to specify file footer
To specify file header go to the tab "File Footer" and check the checkbox "Add Text". In the text box you can specfiy the file footer and also add variables to it such as filename, file creation date, file last modification date, document length, number of words e.t.c. In order to do that, select the variable from the option list and press on the "Add Variable" button.
Moreover, you can add blank lines after the file footer just check the appropriate checkbox and enter the number of lines.
Additionally, you can specify to add file footer only to the first file.
How to join each file of the folder separately (intro + file + outro)
To join each file of a folder separately press on the "Add Folder" button and when asked press on the "Yes" button.
Then for each file of the folder the files that are before the folder will be added as a intro and the files that are after the folder will be added as an outro.
For example, if the files on the list are document1.txt,document2.txt, FOLDER, document3.txt and the folder contains the files book1.txt,book2.txt,book3.txtf then it will generate the files document1.txt+document2.txt+book1.txt+document3.txt and document1.txt+ document2.txt+book2.txt+document3.txt and document1.txt+document2.txt+book3.txt+document3.txt
How to just import files of a folder
To just import files of folder and subfolders press on the "Add Folder" and when asked for "Join each file of the folder separately" press on "No" .
How to import list of text files
To import a list of text files press on the "Import List" button of the toolbar.
One text file path should be on each line of the list file.
Options
You can also specify that the merged text documents retains the original file timestamp of the first text file.
To do that, check the "Retain Timestamp" checkbox.
Moreover, you can specify to explore the merge document when the merge process has finished.
To do that, check "Explore Output Document on Finish" checkbox of the "Options" menu.
Additionally, you can specify the prefix and suffix of the output filename with variables such as filename,creation date e.t.c.
To do that, add a .NET date format pattern in the appropriate textbox.
How to sort documents
To sort text files by Filename select on the "Sort By" menu "Filename".
You can also sort by full file path, date and size.
Check the number string sorting to sort strings correctly that with numbers and also check "Sort in Descending Order" to sort in descending order.
How to copy, paste documents and reorder them
To copy and paste documents on the documents list select them and then press on the "Copy" or "Paste" button.
To reorder them select them on the documents list and then press on the "Move Up" or "Move Down" button of the toolbar.
Option "Create one text file for each folder and subfolders"
To create one text file for each folder and subfolders. For example, if folder A has subfolders B,C,D with text files in them then the application will create three text files B.txt,C.txt,D.txt in folder A with the joined PDF documents.
Please note, that you cannot join each file of the folder separately(intro + file + outro) together with the option 'Create one text file for each folder and subfolders' or 'Create one text file for each root folder'
Option "Create one Text file for each root folder"
To create one text file for each root folder. For example, if folder A has subfolders B,C,D with text files in them then the application will create one PDF document A.pdf in the parent folder of A with all the joined PDF documents.
Option "Create one Text document for each file extension"
To create one text file for each file extension. For example, if folder A has files 1.txt,2.txt,3.txt,a.ini,b.ini,c.ini then it will create the files 1_combined.txt which contains the files 1.txt,2.txt,3.txt and the file a_combined.ini which contains the files a.ini,b.ini,c.ini.
Final step to merge text files
Finally, to merge text files press on the "Combine Text" button of the toolbar and wait for the application to do its job.
In the end, the merged text file will be selected in Windows Explorer.
How to change user interface language
When the application is first started it asks you for your desired user interface language.
You can also change the user interface language from the "Language" menu.
Command Line Usage
Free Combine Text Files 4dots can also be executed from the command line.
Therefore, it can be included in scripts and batch files.
Combines multiple Text documents into a single Text document.
FreeCombineTextFiles4dots.exe [file|directory]
[/cmd]
[/foldersep]
[/keeptimestamp]
[/outputfile:OUTPUT_FILEPATH]
[/?]
cmd : use the command line
file : one or more text files to be processed.
directory : one or more directories containing files to be processed.
outputfile : (optional) the combined text file output filepath.
foldersep : join each file of the folder separately (intro + file + outro).
keeptimestamp : (optional) keep document timestamp.
/? : show help
Example :
FreeCombineTextFiles4dots.exe "c:\documents\invoice.txt" "c:\documents\invoice2.txt" "c:\documents\invoice3.txt"
/outputfile:"c:\documents\mergedPDF.txt"
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