Text files are more convenient than other files on the digital platforms. In fact, Text files are easily readable and can be created quickly using the built-in tools from Windows and Mac PC systems. You don’t need an external tool or software to create and view Text file. That’s the reason why most organizations and enterprise deal with text files.
However, there comes a time when you need to combine or merge multiple text files into one single document. Opening of multiple text files can be the pain sometimes and you might want all of the text files to get merged into one single text file. For the very same reason, most PC users look for ways to combine or merge multiple text files on their respective PC systems.
Most PC users follow the simple copy and paste method to combine multiple text files as they are not aware of the tools and methods to combine them. This is still the best way to combine a limited number of text files into one single file. Let’s see how you can also follow the same.
- Right-click on the Desktop and select New Folder option. This will create a new Text document for you where you can combine multiple text files.
- You can name the file to any name as per your needs.
- Make sure you open the newly created text file with notepad.
- Now, open the text file you want to combine by using the same notepad.
- Press Control+A, this will select all the texts included in that particular file. And then Press Control+C to copy all the selected texts from the file. Now, press Control+V to the newly created folder, this will paste all the copied text from the old file to the new file.
- Close the file, and then open a new file to be copied into the newly created folder. Follow the same, Control+A, Control+C and Control+V functions to select, copy and paste text files.
- At last, save the newly created text file.
This is the simplest method that you can use for a limited number of files i.e. around 10 or 20 files. However, if you have a large number of text files, then you must use a tool or a special method.
If you too are searching for the same and looking for the best of the solution to combine a large number of files, then in this article we have enlisted all the working methods with which you can easily combine or merge multiple text files into one. You can use the built-in tool or can download and install an external tool to do so. We have included both the methods here so that you can easily select the suitable method and merge multiple text files quickly.
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Merge Multiple Text Files on Windows 10 and Mac
Windows Operating System is popular amongst the organizations and big enterprises as they can easily get plenty of compatible software for a variety of ways. In fact, most of us work on Windows 10 PC systems and that’s the reason why many developers offer compatible tools for Windows PCs only. However, with the built-in Terminal window, you can merge multiple text files on a Mac system as well. We will guide you through all the working methods for Windows and Mac systems.
Before we jump on to the multiple Windows tools, let’s check out the built-in tool. For Windows users, Command Prompt acts as a built-in tool to combine multiple text files and, for Mac users there is a Terminal Window for the same. The following steps will show you how you can combine multiple texts using Command Prompt and Terminal Window on both, Windows and Mac systems.
Method 1: Combine/ Merge Text Files Using Built-in Tools
For Windows
Windows’ Command prompt lets you easily combine multiple text files into one, you all need to do is entering the right syntax and that’s all.
The simplest command that you can use to combine multiple text files is by using the copy command. You need to add the number of text files as inputs and one file as output for the combined text file. You can enter the command given below to combine files using the Copy command.
C:\> copy in1.txt + in2.txt + in3.txt Combined.txt
The above command will copy the copy in1.text, in2.txt and in3.text into one single document called Combined.txt.
Alternatively, if your text files follow the same standard, you can follow this simple command to merge all the text files into one.
C:\> type in*.txt > Combined.txt
In the above command, the text in will act as a numeric number, it will fetch the standard formats of text files and will add them into a new text file as Combined.txt.
Apart from this, to merge all the text files and to put a line break between the pages or files, you need to enter a different command given below:
For %f in (*.txt) do type "%f" >> Combined.txt & echo. >> Combined.txt
This command will add an echo and make sure that the new file starts with a dark line so that the reader can easily know about the new file.
By these simple commands, you can easily combine multiple text files into one using Windows’ built-in tool.
Note: For best results, make sure that the text files are properly formatted. Make sure to check their names and if they are not properly named, you need to do it first. Rename the files to file01, file02, file03 etc. The combined text file will be properly formed and you will see the different text files one by one in the final documents with a break line if you follow the final command given above.
For Mac
You can combine multiple text files in the Unix cell using the Terminal Window on Mac and Linux Operating System. Enter the following command into the Terminal Window. Make sure that the text files are following the same standard i.e. file01, file02, file03 etc.
cat filename* > all.txt
In the above command, filename* matches to the standard format of multiple text files. Make sure that you rename all the text files to a standard format so that you can have all those files in a single text file.
This is the simplest way to combine multiple texts into one single text file using a Mac system. As noted above, unlike Windows systems, Mac users have limitations to use external software. For that reason, you need to follow the above-given method on Mac users.
Here, we have enlisted other methods or tools that you can use on a Windows system. If you have a Windows PC, make sure you check the below-given software or tools for the same.
Method 2: Using Multiple Tools
1. TXTCollector
TXTCollector is a free-to-use text merging tool for Windows users. This is the most popular and the advanced tool available on the market and offers the best of user interface than other tools. You can configure this tool as per your requirements, that means you can customize your requirements using the built-in functions.
The tool is very simple where you need to copy or paste the folder path into the Folder box. Or you can also browse the multiple text files from the Browse Folders option. After that, you can choose what type of files you want to combine using the other two options.
Being a specific text combining tool, this tool automatically finds out the TXT files from the chosen folder and combine them as per your requirement. Apart from TXT format, the same tool also support a variety of file formats such as CSV, BAT, HTM, LOG, REG, XML, and INI. This means you can combine or merge files different files of these formats into one single file using this same tool.
Alternatively, you can also select the sub-folder to pick text files from two different folders in your Windows system. There is a separate option given on the tool with which you can select the sub-folder and the main folder.
Separator option separates each file into the main combined file so that you can easily recognize the multiple files. If you don’t want any separator in between the multiple files, then check the boxes of No Separator, No filename, No carriage returns.
This tool is designed for the plain text files and it can not combine the files with special texts. If the files are carrying plain text, only then this tool can combine those files otherwise it will not work.
If we talk about the limitations, then with this tool you can combine up to 32,765 txt files at once. If you have more than 32,765 files, then you need to first create two different files by combining them using this tool. And then again combine the two different files into one using the same tool.
It’s a free-to-use tool, you don’t need to buy it or pay any subscription fee. You can head over to the official website and can download/ install this tool on a respective Windows system.
2. Text File Joiner
Text File Joiner is a standalone text combiner tool designed for Windows users. The developer of this tool is no longer available but the tool is still working well. It’s a small tool with 38kb of file size, but still works fine and combine those files into one single file.
If you are working on an older Windows system with Windows 7 or below, then .NET Framework must be installed first on the system. That’s how you can easily combine multiple text files using this small yet powerful standalone tool.
The user-interface of this tool is pretty straightforward where you will be presented with a small window with two separate buttons. The first button is there to choose the text files. Select the text files using this button, you can select multiple files to combine into one file.
The second button is of the output file i.e. combined text file. You can choose the desired folder where you want to download the Combined text file.
At the bottom side, you would see two different buttons for ordering the multiple text files. You can use the up and down buttons to change the order of the selected files. Just select the file from the main window and use the up or down button to change its place. The selected files will be merged as per the order in the main Window.
This tool requires you to select the number of files from the folders of your Windows PC. You won’t be allowed to select the folders, unlike the TXTCollector tool. You can download this file from the below given third-party software provider.
3. Text File Merge
Text File Merge is a popular text combining tool founded in the year 2002. This tool still fine works today in this competitive market and that’s the reason why this tool is quite popular amongst the Windows PC users.
This tool comes as a Zip file and you have to unzip the files before you can use this option within the tool. Browse the folder and choose Text File Merge Program before you actually use it.
You can select the browse folder and select multiple text files. All the selected files can be seen on the main Window at the right sidebar. You can also select all files from the folder by clicking on to the Select All button.
Apart from this, you can use the different options to customize the output. Make use of all the options and functions given on the main page and you will get the combined file as per your setup.
The combined merged file will be saved into the same folder with a different name. This tool is available for Windows PCs only and you can download it for a respective Windows system from the following link.
Final Words:
These are the simplest methods and tools that you can use to combine or merge multiple files on a Windows or Mac PC system. All these tools are available as free tools and you can get them for absolutely free of cost. The tools serve easy interface and anyone can easily start using them. Follow the given tools and choose the most reliable software now!