Someone asked for this so nicely:  :P

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=8071.msg212665#msg212665

that I have patched up a simple unit converter alias with the use of GNU units program

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Units_%28software%29

(wiki lists the windows binary link - you need to install it and/or GNU-WIN).

Here it is:


Naturally, you may need/want to modify the path and the expression.

Usage:

units 100 miles/hour to km/hour

Result:
* 160.9344
/ 0.0062137119

Could it be a Microsoft Word macro?

The simplest way I can see is to open a document and then a selection of other documents to paste into. A macro would cut selected text and ask for user input (? in Word status bar). The user would input the filename, e.g. "1" and the text gets sent to the open "1.doc" (or "1.txt") document.

Advantages:
1. You stay in Word which might be useful for other word processing tasks you need to do with the text.
2. You have direct preview of all appended files, so you might clean them up immediately.
3. If the document names are short and easy to handle, no need to remember the shortcuts - log entries go into "Log", comments into "Comments" etc.
4. It should be simple - short code, no need for an external app to be running, etc.

Disadvantages:
1. You need Word (duh).
2. The document names may be either informative/usable etc. or easy to enter. I mean if you choose file names "1.txt", "2.txt" (for easy input) you have to rename them later anyway.

Edit: Could you describe the "automated" part of the request in more detail? What would be the criteria for parsing which you mention later (first you write about cutting etc.)?

OK, here it goes... It's very simple, but it has manual confirmation built-in - the distance measurement is not always correct. Any tips for improvement are welcome, of course.