When I add new media to a profile, I end up using the filename to designate the media. This is because I have media distributed in several directories, on a drive larger than 1 TB, so any sort of file search across the entire drive would take hours (or days). The filename is easy to get in Windows with the “copy as path” option. But this pastes the file name with quotes - like “path”. RootsMagic accepts this and then it fails, because it stupidly amplifies this quoted path name into an impossibly long file name for no obvious reason. Instead, I have to deliberately remove the quotes, and then it will work.
Are you choosing the file by using the little folder at the end of the filename line and choosing the file from there? Might be an idea to read up on adding media as you seem to be having a number of issues.
I can’t speak to your exact problem. But I use a file manager with the weird sounding name of Agent Ransack instead of Windows File Manager to copy and paste full file paths into RM during File Add operations. Agent Ransack doesn’t add the quotes and it all works perfectly. I assume you are copying the path in Windows File Manager which is causing the quotes to be there. i don’t know if there is anything that RM could do about the quotes or not after you paste them in.
I’m sure that Windows is putting the quotes in for you because it supports blanks in file names and folder names. I don’t like blanks in file names and folder names because they can sometimes cause all kinds of subtle problems, even though they work fine most of the time. But Windows File Manager adds the quotes even when there are no blanks in the file path string.
A few clarifications - I have been using Windows now for about 4 decades, and I have accumulated a large set of files. I originally used a Mac, back in the days of the 128 K Macs. When Jobs left Apple and Apple started to slip behind, I had to leave and go to Windows. I have been thinking of going back to a Mac, but by now I have so much legacy that it would be a hard task to convert. I can agree with the many complaints about Windows, but I have had to learn to live with them. The issue with quotes on path names is comparatively minor - it’s an irritant and not a failure. BTW, it does not seem to matter if I select Image, File, Sound, or Video. I am not sure what that option actually does, if anything, in a Windows environment. The file types that seem to work are PDF, JPG, and PNG. DOCX and MP4 seem to just make a useless icon.
Macs never fell behind despite the period with the Pepsi CEO and have been wonderful since OS X launched in 2000. Conversion is relatively easy and you will trade all that Microsoft trauma/$ for secure stable functional easy of use.
I think I do what you want on a regular basis. There is probably just a misunderstanding of what is required and what is pasted into RM.
“Copy as path” command includes quotes for good reasons. Most of my file names have spaces.
When pasting a quoted path into an OS file open or save dialog, the quotes are removed and all is ok. When pasting into RM, RM does not remove the quotes and some extra keystrokes are required.
After the paste, press right arrow to move to the end of the selected text and remove the selection highlite.
Press backspace to remove the right side quote.
Press home to move the the left end of the text.
Press delete to remove the left side quote.
Done
It sounds like this thread includes an implicit request for RM to remove the initial and trailing quote from a complete file path when linking files into RM. That would solve the problem.
Perhaps removal or at least a warning about quotes would be useful. What is unexpected is that the quotes cause a duplication. I tried this:
Enter: “some_file.dat” for the path name.
What this turns into is: “some_file.dat”“some_file.dat”“some_file.dat”“some_file.dat”“some_file.dat”“some_file.dat”“some_file.dat”“some_file.dat”
I have no explanation for the duplication. And the quote character is not a valid pathname character, so far as I know.
drag and drop is your friend otherwise you should use the folder button at the end of the filename box to locate and select the file you are interested in.
There are many different reasonable ways to link files into RM.
RM’s Drag and Drop tool for files has a number of advantages. Chief among them for me is that Drag and Drop will never result in the same file being linked into RM multiple times. By contrast, the Add New Media tool has what I consider to be a bug or a design defect in that it makes it very easy to link the same file into RM multiple times. When this happens, it is a real mess to clean up. A problem for me with the Drag and Drop and using a small screen is that it is hard work to size the windows that are involved so that the drag and drop is even possible. I certainly know how to do it, but as a sample size of 1 I find it to be a real pain on a small screen.
I use a tool for managing my files that provides me with a complete file path that I can just paste into RM, and the complete file path does not include the leading and trailing quote. So pasting the file path works great for me and it is far easier than Drag and Drop. It is also far easier than all the clicks that can be needed in the filename box to navigate a sub-folder structure.
It seems to me that it ought to be very easy for RM to recognize and remove the quote marks. However, I don’t know what happens when you remove the quote marks from the complete file path if the complete file path contains blanks or other unusual characters.
I’m aware that lots of users (and perhaps it’s millions of users in the overall Windows world including outside of RM users) swear by using blanks in folder names and file names and swear that there are no problems. But in my opinion, there are problems. I run into such problems any time I use files set up by somebody else with blanks in the file name or folder names. So I don’t know the best solution for the problem of the leading and trailing quote that won’t work for RM. But I don’t think it’s Drag and Drop, and I don’t think it’s forcing the user to click their way through a complicated sub folder structure. And I do know that the leasing and trailing quotes are a completely standard Windows feature when you copy a complete file path from Windows File Explorer. So RM is not supporting a standard Windows feature.