Importing Filenames

The first step to creating folders is importing a datasource. Capturebot Lite can import from a plain text file, though a structured format like a CSV is best supported.

You can import a file by dragging it into the File area, clicking "Choose", or from File -> Open. Text can also be pasted into the app which will use the pasted contents as the datasource.

Once you file is opened Capturebot will attempt to automatically parse the file. This will preset the column and row delimiters, text qualifier, and read any headers. If the automatic import doesn't produce the desired results you can customize the settings used.

Import Settings

Delimiters

There are two kinds of delimiters:

  1. Column delimiters
  2. Row delimiters

The most common column delimiters are commas, for CSVs, but you can also select from several other characters.

The row delimiters mostly provide support for Windows and older Mac files. If you find the filenames are imported into a single record or produce an error try different row delimiters until you find one that works.

Text Qualifier

If your datasource contains the separator character as part of the data itself each column will have been wrapped, usually, in double quotes. Once again, if you find your data hasn't imported correctly it might be remedied by changing the text qualifier.

Headers

For structured data like CSVs and TSVs it's common to have a header row as the first row. Headers are used to select which column's data are to be used as the filenames.

For lists of filenames you can set the header row to None and the columns won't be parsed.

If your CSV has been exported from another application the headers row might not be the first row, for instance having the table now in the exported file. In this case you can select the starting row for the real CSV data.

Trimming Whitespace

The final import option is to trim whitespace from filenames. This will remove any spaces or errant newlines from the beginning and end of each record. For instance a filename\r will become a filename with this option enabled.