ExpPrint 6.7.2.0

Overview

When working often with many folders and files, you will probably need  at some point to use a utility that will assist you in viewing and printing directories or files. ExpPrint can be this utility, since it was designed for this purpose and has many useful features in its toolset. For instance, apart from the basic properties it provides access to all metadata tags for files supported by Windows, plus it gives you the ability to save listings as Text/CSV or HTML files for future reference.

Installation

Download the setup archive and extract it to find two files. Launching either of those will start the installation process, which doesn’t consist of many steps and is pretty easy to complete. If you don’t have Microsoft .NET Framework v2 (or above) installed then you will be prompted to install it before you can proceed.

The program is clean from malware and doesn’t contain 3^rd party applications (e.g. toolbars) - see report. It can be installed on any machine running Windows XP (SP3), Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, 7, 8 or Server 2012.

Interface

To use the program, you must first create a listing. To do that, right click on a drive, folder or group of files and from the context menu select the “ExpPrint Listing…” item. This will open the ExpPrint dialog box, where you can make a few changes to the listing, such as set filename and document title. Clicking on “Create” will save the listing and the Listing viewer will open it as soon as the dialog box closes. From this window you can choose which layout format you want to use (Detailed table (HTML), Detailed Table (Text/CSV) or Multi-Column (HTML)). A sample preview of the selected layout is shown on the lower half of the window to give you an idea of how each one looks. Click “Next” when you have made your choice, so that a new window will open with options to customize your listing.

Pros

Listings can be saved as HTML or Text/CSV files and then stored or printed. Numerous properties can be displayed in listings depending on the file types included. For example, you can see version, duration, year and encoding date for all media files, whilst for audio files only you can see bit rate, sample rate, album title, artist, track number and BPM (Beats per minute). For image files you can see tags, comments, date taken, ISO and dimensions.

A great deal of sorting options is available as well. You can sort the contained items by name, size, date modified/created/accessed, CRC32, author, path and others.

As mentioned above, three layout formats are available for the listings: Detailed Table (HTML), Detailed Table (Text/CSV) and Multi-Column (HTML). The first two options produce a tabular format, with the only difference that Text/CSV layout will create a Unicode text CSV file. Multi-column layout on the other hand, creates a table in which the files of each folder are placed in a pre-defined number of columns.

Cons

The limitation on the unregistered version is that you can only list a single-level folder and cannot alter or save your settings.

Alternatives

Two alternatives are Directory List & Print Pro (paid) and Directory Printer (free). Both are equally good; however ExpPrint has considerably more customization settings for your listings.

Conclusion

Tasks that require a file listing app are bound to be easier and completed faster with ExpPrint. Although it might take a while to get used to all its functions, it’s definitely one extremely helpful product.