I am trying to create a batch file that will complete the action I need. It will always run in WinXP. I have been researching this for a couple of weeks, and I have not found the solution. *** First problem is that I need to save a .xml file to text file with the wordwrap on. coping the file is easy but it copies everything in one line. I can manually turn on word wrap and its fine, but I need it to automatically save to a txt with wordwrap. *** Second, I need to be able to locate and assign a dir within the txt file to a varible. I have thought that if I butcher the new text file and have the batch file del everything but the dir that I need then I will be in business. the only problem is that I can del out lines of text(after I manually enable wordwrap in notepad) but I have not been able to del the begining and end of the line and keep the dir information that I need to set as a var. The last half of the dir information will always be changing, so it will always begin with "C:\program files\program" (I will be setting this bat file to automatically run before the program is launched.) If anyone can help. I want to use a batch file but I think I may have to go VB Damon

It might help to post the html. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

here is what I have: this is the file that has been copied as a text file. When it is copied the wordwrap is not on. so all this code is on one line. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?><!--Application Defaults--><appdefaults><lastuserid>user11</lastuserid><movetodir>c:\program files\program\folder1\A\Reports</movetodir><movefromdir>c:\program files\program\folder1\A\Rejected</movefromdir></appdefaults> the ONLY part of this that i need to remain is c:\program files\program\folder1\A\Reports is there a way that i can use a batch file to del everything but this line? Keeping in mind that \folder1\a\rejected will always be changing on this line. the only constant will be c:\program files\program\ Wordwrap is not an important issue. I just know that if i could enable it from a batch file then <movetodir>c:\program files\program\folder1\A\Reports</movetodir> this would be own its own line. May make it eaier to extract out the dir alone. thanks Damon

:: get path from html @echo off > ### setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion find /i "c:\program" < myhtml > ## for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%x in (##) do ( set str=%%x call :sub1 ) set /p myvar=<### echo myvar is set to: !myvar! del ##? goto :eof :sub1 for /f "tokens=1* delims=<>" %%a in ("!str!") do ( echo %%a | find /i "c:\program files" >> ### set str=%%b ) if not "!str!"=="" goto :sub1 goto :eof ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

I may not be using the code correctly. GetPath.html ----- is the file that has the directory that I am trying to obtain GetPath.txt ---- Is where I want the obtained dir c:\program files\program\folder1\A\Reports copied to, with nothing else in this file. I tried the below with the modifications, I think i may be changing the wrong thing. :: get path from html @echo off > ### setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion find /i "c:\program" < GetPath.html > GetPath.txt for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%x in (GetPath.txt) do ( set str=%%x call :sub1 ) set /p myvar=<### echo myvar is set to: !myvar! del ##? goto :eof :sub1 for /f "tokens=1* delims=<>" %%a in ("!str!") do ( echo %%a | find /i "c:\program files" >> ### set str=%%b ) if not "!str!"=="" goto :sub1 goto :eof Damon

@echo off > ### setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion find /i "c:\program" < GetPath.html > GetPath.txt for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%x in (GetPath.txt) do ( set str=%%x call :sub1 ) set /p myvar=<### echo !myvar! > GetPath.txt del ##? goto :eof :sub1 for /f "tokens=1* delims=<>" %%a in ("!str!") do ( echo %%a | find /i "c:\program files" >> ### set str=%%b ) if not "!str!"=="" goto :sub1 goto :eof ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

When I run the script, copy and pasted it. the getpath.txt displays the output nothing more. ECHO is off. Is there something I may have missed? Damon