At first I was going to ask this question: How to convert a Windows Folder tree into a Word Outline?
But really my question is more general and that is only one way I thought to do it. Let me explain my problem:
I have a large shared tree of folders and files. I want to do a conceptual review of the structure, reorganizing it and weeding out things so that it is easier to traverse and use.
What I want is something where it is very easy to do structural editing of the folder tree, but not in situ, i.e., not on the live folder tree. My intent is to plan a new simplified structure, get buy-in from my colleagues, and then migrate to it.
The best tool I've found for doing hierarchical structure planning and experimenting is the outline view in Word. It lets me easily collapse & expand sections, move entire sub-trees around, etc. Hence my initial (but unsuccessful) search for an easy way to get a Word outline format of the folder tree so I could take advantage of Word's outline processor.
Now, I know there is the tree command-line tool in DOS that will give me a pretty picture of the tree using the special characters or ASCII characters and I know that I can redirect the output of that into a file or other program. But it is singularly unsuited to creating a file that I can easily use in Word for my purposes.
So I'm looking for any guidance towards solving my problem. It could be along the lines of my original search, i.e. how to convert a folder structure into a Word Doc of headings suitable for outline processing? Or any other ideas about how to do planning of changes to a very large and complex existing folder hierarchy.