Generating lists of files for Merge

Suppose you have a bunch of image files, all in one folder, that you want to merge into a template presentation.

Your data file looks like this:

but you need a way to get the names of your image files into the data file. Without typing them all by hand, that is. Here's what you do:

First, generate a plain text file that contains your filenames:

Open a command prompt (choose Start, Run; type "CMD.EXE" and click OK)
Navigate to the folder where your image files are stored. They should be in the same folder as the template file for this exercise.
Type: "dir /b *.jpg > temp.txt" (don't type the quote marks, and change .jpg to whatever other file type you're using). Press Enter.

This creates a file called temp.txt; the file will contain a list of all the JPG files in your folder.

Now we'll import the list into Excel:

Start Excel
Choose File, Open
In "Files of Type" choose Text
Browse to the folder where your pictures are stored and choose temp.txt (the file you just created)
Excel will want to ask a bunch of questions about the file's format; ignore it and just click Finish.
You'll see a list of files in column A.

Finally we'll change the vertical list to a horizontal one to make Merge happy:

Select all of the cells in column A that contain filenames
Choose Edit, Copy from the main menu bar
Put the cursor in a blank cell below the file list and choose Edit, Paste Special. Put a check next to "Transpose" then click OK.
You now have your list of files horizontally laid out.
Copy from there into your data file beneath the first line with all the "PIC:xxx" stuff and save.

Now your data file should look something like this:

Merge away!

Menu: