Delphi applications will automatically make use of long file paths, but you may want to convert that long path into a short path.

You can do so by using the ExtractShortPathName function.

Declaration
-----------
function ExtractShortPathName(const FileName: string): string;

Description
-----------
ExtractShortPathName converts the file name (FileName), to the short 8.3 form.
ExtractShortPathName returns an empty string if the file or directory does not exist.

Example
-------

uses
  FileCtrl;

var
  Dir : string;

begin
  if (SelectDirectory('Please select any Directory', '', Dir)) then
    begin
     Label1.Caption := Dir;
     Label2.Caption := ExtractShortPathName(Dir);
    end;
end;

In this example the Windows directory browser will allow you to select any directory and will then display the long and short paths in the labels.

NOTE: Remember to add the SysUtils unit to your application's uses-clause.