folder name with spaces

[unquestioned2]

How do I open files which are located in a folder with spaces in the folder name like
C:\This Is Just A Folder Name\

nconvert commands -D C:\This Is Just A Folder Name\*.tiff doesn't work.
nconvert commands -D "C:\This Is Just A Folder Name\"*.tiff doesn't work either.

I use a batch file for this.
Or is there a special way for typing the spaces in the batch file?

[XnTriq]

Entering dir /x at the command prompt should give you the 8.3 short filename notation.

• Microsoft Knowledge Base: How Windows Generates 8.3 File Names from Long File Names
• Microsoft TechNet Library: Command-line reference » Dir / For

• Ninotech: Path Copy
• CodePlex: Path Copy Copy
• PLJ Soft: ClipName

[unquestioned2]

That with dir /x worked. Thanks!
(That with the help-programs goes in a direction I'm not interested in.)

as an example:

instead of
-D C:\PICTURES\portable stuff\%image folder%\nightly\-77577-\

I now use
-D C:\PICTURES\PORTAB~1\%%IMAGE~2\nightly\-77577-\*.*

and that works.


But I'm still wondering why I have to use the second %.

It's like
-out jpeg -o C:\PICTURES\developed\%%.jpg

which also didn't work (properly) without the second %.

(At least I missed the point there this behaviour is documented.)

[XnTriq]

nconvert commands -D "C:\This Is Just A Folder Name\"*.tiff doesn't work either.

Please try the following syntax:

• nconvert commands -D "C:\This Is Just A Folder Name\*.tiff"

But I'm still wondering why I have to use the second %.

It's like
-out jpeg -o C:\PICTURES\developed\%%.jpg

which also didn't work (properly) without the second %.

(At least I missed the point there this behaviour is documented.)

• XnView Forum: bugs and suggestions for NConvert
• Microsoft: Windows XP Professional Product Documentation » Using batch parameters
• SS64: Windows CMD » Syntax » Quotes, Escape Characters, Delimiters
• Rob van der Woude's Scripting Pages: Escape Characters
• Richard Bonner: DOS Characters » Percent Percent or Double Percent

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BTW, does nconvert support quotes if the path contains spaces?

Yes, use " ("my folder"

Do you have tried
for /D %i in (*) do nconvert -multi -out tiff -o %i.tif %i\*.tif

And yes, if filename or folder have a space, there is a problem

For me, previous sample didn't work when there were spaces in dir names.
Here's an update -

@for /R /D %%a in (*) do nconvert.exe <your_options_here> %%~sa\*.*

~s is a documented 'for' feature, it converts to short path

[unquestioned2]

Please try the following syntax:

• nconvert commands -D "C:\This Is Just A Folder Name\*.tiff"

I didn't mention it, but I'd tried that already and it didn't work - if I remember me correctly.

Related topics for future reference:
...

The additional links seem... are... I don't know. Similar or related to the topic. Nothing more, nothing less.

After all I hoped for another solution. For example in HTML there is difference between ENTER and
SHIFT + ENTER. The first adds an additional (empty) line and the second only ends the line as in Word.

I can imagine that there is a solution with ALT GR. Normaly it's possible to enter additional symbols
with ALT GR + a number, e.g. "123". I hoped that there was an additional symbol for SPACE,
which could be used instead of the common SPACE (by pressing the SPACE-Key) in batch-files.

Has anyone heard of something like this?
"dir /x" works. But if there is something as I mentioned, I would prefer it (because it can be used
in more situations).

[XnTriq]

Well, you heard the man:

Ok, so here the only way is to use a bat command + for

• Windows IT Pro
  • How do I pass parameters to a batch file?
• Stack Overflow
  • Getting Short-Filename of Command-Line Argument from Batch-File
  • How to handle spaces in path names in for loop?
• Google Answers
  • how do I get the short 8.3 filename AND path??
• VB Helper
  • Get long file names and paths for command line arguments
• Rob van der Woude's Scripting Pages
  • The FOR command and VFAT/FAT32 long file names

Note on short file/folder names:
There is a bug involving the ~s option - the displayed output may be wrong if the current directory name is not the same as the short (8.3) name of the directory.
A workaround is to run command.com /c rem which will change the current directory to 8.3, details here.