How to Quickly Create Multiple New Windows Folders using Excel and the Command Prompt

The create new folder option using the right click mouse button in Microsoft Windows is slow and cumbersome since you must also rename the folder to your liking. Many times I have needed to quickly create multiple new folders and the right click create new folder would literally take forever. The Command Prompt (commonly known as the DOS window) contains a legacy create directory command "MKDIR", that, when combined with MS Excel, can quickly create multiple new folders in Windows. This is particularly ideal when you have a list already created in Excel that you desire to be new folder titles. For example purposes, this article describes how to rapidly make 30 new folders from scratch.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PC running Windows (any version) with MS Excel installed.

1. Open an Excel spreadsheet. In cell B1, enter the number 1, and in cell B2, enter the number 2. Highlight both cells, left click and hold the bottom right hand corner of cell B2 and drag the highlight to cell B30. There should now be the numbers 1-30 in cells B1 to B30. In cell A1, type MKDIR. Highlight cell A1, left click and hold the bottom right hand corner of cell A1 and drag the highlight to cell A30. Cells A1 to A30 should now all contain MKDIR.

2. 

   Concatenate the cells by first typing the following text string into cell C3 (no brackets) :[ =A1&" "&B1 ]. Cell C3 should now contain the text "MKDIR A". Highlight cell C3, left click and hold the bottom right hand corner of cell C3 and drag the highlight to cell C30. Cells C1 to C30 should now contain "MKDIR 1" to "MKDIR 30". Highlight column C and copy it to the clipboard (right click "Copy").

3. Open the Command Prompt by going to the Start menu, then Run, type CMD and click OK. The Command Prompt is also available through the accessories menu. Navigate to the directory where you want to make all of the new folders, for our test purposes, we will navigate to the desktop. The default directory when the Command Prompt is opened, in most cases, will be "C:\Documents and Settings\LOG-IN NAME>". Type "CD desktop" and hit enter to Change the Directory (CD) to the desktop. The string should now read "C:\Documents and Settings\LOG-IN NAME\Desktop>". Create a single new folder for our test by typing "MKDIR Test" and hitting enter. Change the Directory to this test folder by typing "CD Test".

4. Right click in the Command Prompt window and select paste. Our copied column of "MKDIR 1" through "MKDIR 30" will be automatically entered and folders with the names 1, 2, 3...30 will be created in the Test folder. Open up the test folder on your desktop in Windows to see if it worked. If it did, go on to the next step, if not, curse my name and review the previous steps.

5. You are now ready to make your own folders by the thousands, using an established spreadsheet with cells containing values you would like to make into new folders, or the click and drag method discussed above. Any way you cut it, this method is much faster the burdensome right click, create new folder, type in folder name option, available in Windows.