A guide to batch renaming files easily

Here’s one software that productivity nuts will love. If you’ve ever needed to catalog files, change extensions, add something to a filename in large batches you know the suffering that is “right click, select, type, enter” done over and over and over again. If you need a tool that can simply edit filenames, rename extensions and so on in a very powerful, customizable way, read on!

I set out to find some sort of tool because I need to catalog files in batches of 100 about every two days. I get a batch of stuff in txt format and I need to do the following operations.

• I need the files to be in the following format [ID - Number.txt]
• I also need them in this format [ID - Number.html]

Practically this means that I need “032 - 001.txt”, “032 - 002.txt” and so on (all the way to 100), also in .html format and I need to be able to customize all of this because for the next batch I will need “033″ at the beginning.

Doing a Google search and trying a lot of free software that popped up I finally found Batch File Renamer. Not a fancy name, not a fancy program, but it gets the job done better than I’ve seen with other apps. First, head over to the Cerebral Synergy download page, scroll down and download Batch File Renamer.

Once installed go to a folder where you wish to rename the files. Right click on the folder and select “Batch rename files…”. The tool will be launched and you are greeted with a somewhat stark and daunting interface. At the top-left you can navigate through folders, on the right you can see all the files in the folder. By clicking on the checkboxes you can add or remove files from the renaming list.

So take a look at some files in one of my folders, the naming is all over the place. I just launch file renamer and apply the following settings. First of all, I go to the “Change Name” box on the bottom left. I check “Catalog Files” and set the start number to 001. I also go to the “Edit Name” part on the bottom right and I prefix file names with the number I need, let’s choose “032 - “. You will need a space both before and after the hyphen if you want it spaced out like I have it. I leave all other options unchanged.

Click “Start” at the bottom, and click no if you don’t need to see the output first, yes if you do (I usually click no) and let ‘er rip. It will rename all files in a jiffy and you will be left with a nicely cataloged list, take a look to the right to see what happened to mine.

I mentioned that I also need the extension to be changed to .html as well, but I need separate files for that. Just copy the folder, paste it and rename it. One folder could be called “Txt”, the other “Html”. Right click on the Html folder and run Batch File Renamer. You should see you nicely organized list of files. Let’s uncheck the catalog option and the prefix option, although if the order doesn1t matter it doesn’t really make a difference if they are renamed again. Go to extensions and check “Change all extensions to” and then type “html”. Click start and all files will be converted to html files.

Experiment with the program it’s quite versatile and usable, I think we may getting a bit too productive and organized!

Download Batch File Renamer from the Cerebral Synergy home page
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