Wildcards Do Not Work In "delete File"

[Morgan]

When I use a wildcard in a "Delete File" command, and click OK, nothing happens.

The "select files" window will not close. I can browse to

a folder containing several files and, if I select one of the files in the folder,

it will accept this command and when the macro is run, delete this file.

 

If, however, I use a wildcard along with a partial file name or if I

use "*.*", the "select files" window wont accept it. When I click OK, nothing happens. The window doesn't close

until I select "Cancel" or until I select a file that is in the folder.

 

There is some other odd behavior associated with this:

 

After selecting one of the files in the folder and hitting "OK", I can then go to the

"File Manipulation" window in ME and change the selected file name to

*.* or any other wildcard combination and it will then work. I just cannot browse to the folder and

use a wildcard.

THere is more!!! After attempting to use wildcards in

the "Select File" window, there will then be a diffence in the contents of the folder in this

window compared to the same folder opened in an explorer window which is opened outside of ME.

I can open the folder in explorer and it may have 3 files in it but in the "Select File" window in

ME, it will have 2 files or maybe no files. (The File Types window shows "All Files"). Other times,

there will be a huge number of files shown in the folder when viewed in the ME "Select File" window,

but the actual folder, when viewed from explorer, will be empty. These inconsistencies are very

random in nature and very unexpected.

 

In summation, the only time this feature works as expected, is when I select a file that is

actually in the folder, with no wild cards added. Otherwise, whenever a wildcard is used in anyway,

some odd behavior takes place. If the file selected is"New Text Document (3).txt" and I add a

wildcard such as "New Text Document *.txt" or "New Text Document (*).txt" or any other wildcard

combination, including *.*, it goes crazy. When I do this and hit OK, it not only wont close the window

but some of the files in the window will go away. I don't even have to run the macro! They just

disappear right there in the "Select Files window". Except that they are really still there because

I can close and reopen the window and they will be there again.

 

As far as I know, other functions within ME are working as expected.

 

I have uninstalled/reinstalled ME once, with no change in this behavior.

 

If anyone has any idea as to what is going on here and what to do about it, I'd like to hear it.

 

Thanks.

[joe]

Hello Morgan!

 

What you are experiencing is normal. When choosing a file using the Windows-based file-picker dialog, the dialog is expecting you to just pick a file. If, on the other hand, you type a file mask in the field name, it assumes that you want to see only files that match that particular pattern. If, for example, you were to enter "*.doc" then the dialog will only display files with the ".doc" extension for you to pick. It works this way in other applications too, like Excel and Word.

[Morgan]

So, any file masks or wildcards are inserted in the "File(s) Path/Name" box on the File Manipulation window instead?

[joe]

Yes, that is correct. And keep in mind that if you are not using an absolute path (like c:\folder\temp\*.*) then all action will take place in the current working folder.