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On OSX at least, it's possible to quickly retrieve a folder/file path by dragging & dropping the folder/file into the terminal, eg:

enter image description here

Is it possible to program Mathematica's front end enable similar drag & drop operation? I'm primarily interested in passing path info to Import and Export.

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What kind of content do you want to drag and drop? It works for Images. I am not exactly sure what action Mathematica should take when you drag and drop an arbitrary file. Do you just want the file's name to appear as a string? – Searke Jul 16 '12 at 20:49
That's an interesting question. On Windows 7 that drag yields a list of file names within the folder. Is that what you get also? – Mr.Wizard♦ Jul 16 '12 at 20:50
The file's path. Editing post to refer to Import/Export – alancalvitti Jul 16 '12 at 20:52
Also you get strings for files that are text files. A text file containing {1,2,3,4} yields "{1,2,3,4}". Some drag and drop functionality is already implemented. It would be probably wise to avoid actually overloading it. – Searke Jul 16 '12 at 20:52

1 Answer

up vote 9 down vote accepted

On Mac OS 10.7 just holding down the Option key while you drag works.

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Excellent, that works. Is that documented? – alancalvitti Jul 16 '12 at 20:54
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Yes check out 'howto/InsertAFilePath' – M.R. Jul 16 '12 at 20:54
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On Windows one should hold down the Ctrl+Shift keys when releasing the mouse button. The cursor will change to indicate that a path will be inserted when you release the mouse button. reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/howto/InsertAFilePath.html – Alexey Popkov Jul 17 '12 at 5:47

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