"Paste to File"

[DavidGretzschel]

elevator pitch

scenario 1:

Imagine you want to quickly snap an image from your screen and want that image in a specific folder which is already in an open explorer window, so you press win+shift+s and make your rectangular selection, which is now stored in the clipboard and then you will.....

currently:

....you will left+click the pop-up to open Snip&Sketch. You will press ctrl+s and open the file-explorer-save-dialog. If you're lucky, the last thing you saved in was this very explorer window and you can click enter and you're done. Often though you're gonna have to navigate a lot in this very awkward small window, till you get where you need to be to save it.

with Paste into File:

...you will activate the open explorer-window, right-click (or press the context-key), press "p" twice, hit enter, hit enter and you've saved the image as a .png where you need it.*

scenario 2:

Now imagine you want to quickly snag a bunch of tl;dr-terminal output for future review. Or for looking at, should in a later session go something wrong and you don't know why. (look for warnings maybe)
You already have the folder where you store all your terminal output nonsense in explorer.
So you select all the text and copy it and you will...

currently:

....you will press windows, type "Note", look for Notepad, open it, paste the text in, press ctrl+s and do the whole ordeal with the file-save mini-dialog again.

with Paste into File:

Right-click into the explorer window, click "Paste into File" and hit enter to save as txt.*

*you can also in both cases specify a filename or a different file extension

I considered suggesting that this functionality would make for a great PowerToy. Only before I got to do that, I learnt that someone already did this.

https://github.com/EslaMx7/PasteIntoFile
Here's a quick demo of that nifty little utility:
https://www.loom.com/share/9b5ac97bc5804aef874a8f633fba7876

So if it's already done..... could this become a new addition to Microsoft PowerToys?

[niels9001]

This would be so nice to have! Especially for textfiles and images!

[crutkas]

tweaked title slightly. "Into" to me implied it would go into an existing file. Neat idea!

[rjpaulsen]

I was here to request this exact feature. You just saved me the trouble of writing it up (and did a nicer job!). The only reason I would not want this feature added to PowerToys is because it should be part of Snip&Sketch.

[Martin5001]

"Into" to me implied it would go into an existing file.

That could actually be good too. Little bit complicated though as you'd need to determine where in the existing file to place it if there is already some content.

[DavidGretzschel]

"Into" to me implied it would go into an existing file.

That could actually be good too. Little bit complicated though as you'd need to determine where in the existing file to place it if there is already some content.

I think that's something for a file-viewing (image or text, really) program to deal with. And mostly that already works with ctrl+v (or win+v), which most programs implement just fine.

[Jay-o-Way]

The "current location" field still needs input. What if the value it starts up with is different then the location you want? You would still have to get the directory (possible by clicking the location bar in Explorer and Ctrl+C) and then pasting it. Right?
But as soon as you have copied the location, you can also paste it in the standard Save As dialog.

[DavidGretzschel]

The "current location" field still needs input. What if the value it starts up with is different then the location you want? You would still have to get the directory (possible by clicking the location bar in Explorer and Ctrl+C) and then pasting it. Right?
But as soon as you have copied the location, you can also paste it in the standard Save As dialog.

The current-location field is autopopulated with wherever in the explorer you launched it from.
For me that's my inbox folder, that's always open.
Figured that part was more implicit than it was :)
Before you pointed it out, I didn't even notice that there was a "current location"-field.

Broad idea here, is that the location you're likely to save a lot of stuff to is also a location, that you'd have at your fingertips.
For me that's my inbox-folder for everything in my OneDrive.

[tobiasviehweger]

So I already found Paste Into File as well, but it's still too much friction for me personally, I might as well use snip and sketch then.. I'd prefer it as hands off as possible, like:

• Press Print to capture screenshot with Snip&Sketch
• Press CTRL+V in any folder to directly paste a .png file without any dialogs in between (could be configurable of course). But to have a hands-off option with just current folder + "Screenshot + Timestamp" as filename would be awesome

[elephant2000]

So I already found Paste Into File as well, but it's still too much friction for me personally, I might as well use snip and sketch then.. I'd prefer it as hands off as possible, like:

• Press Print to capture screenshot with Snip&Sketch
• Press CTRL+V in any folder to directly paste a .png file without any dialogs in between (could be configurable of course). But to have a hands-off option with just current folder + "Screenshot + Timestamp" as filename would be awesome

"Paste File for File Explorer" does this.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/paste-file-for-file-explorer/9pp2mwpbzfgh?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

[Fruchtzwerg94]

+1 for the feature. are there any updates / plans on this? A solution included in PowerToys would be really a nice improvement / powerfeature. This would mean a seamless integration without the need of additional tools.

[crramirez]

Meanwhile you wait for this you can use this app that does exactly the same and much more. https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/paste-to-file/9PM34S06CFVJ

[eltos]

Meanwhile you wait for this you can use this app that does exactly the same and much more.

Or this one, which is free, open source and can be configured to listen to WIN+ALT+V

https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/paste-into-file/XP88X1XTPKZJDJ

[bigplayer-ai]

I use this as my main:
https://github.com/huiyadanli/PasteEx

[mcfalld]

it would be nice if for things like pictures you could also choose the picture from the clipboard history. Maybe I copied 5 or 6 files and decide I want to save 3 of them later. Would be nice to be able to use win + v and pick the ones I want to save as i file.

[zbalkan]

I believe it is possible to start small to test it out such as save all images in clipboard to the current folder as PNG by default. Then, it would be possible to improve the improve for images and other tools in time for power users.

[boromyr]

+1 for this feature