Here's a nice trick I didn't know about until today, courtesy of Lifehacker: Windows has the built-in ability to rename whole batches files at once. Just highlight all of the files and press F2 (or right-click on them and choose Rename), and type in the new name. I suspect that the reason I never figured this one out is that when you press F2, your highlighted selection goes away, but rest assured that once you type in a new name and press enter, all of your files will be renamed (with "(1)," "(2)," "(3)," etc. tacked onto the end). The functionality is pretty limited, but for, say, renaming a bunch of DSC####.jpg files to something more meaningful, like an event's date or name, can go a long way in keeping things organized. If you need more power, I recommend reading the comments over at Lifehacker, where readers recommend all manner of free and cheap apps for getting the job done.Batch file-renaming in Windows
Here's a nice trick I didn't know about until today, courtesy of Lifehacker: Windows has the built-in ability to rename whole batches files at once. Just highlight all of the files and press F2 (or right-click on them and choose Rename), and type in the new name. I suspect that the reason I never figured this one out is that when you press F2, your highlighted selection goes away, but rest assured that once you type in a new name and press enter, all of your files will be renamed (with "(1)," "(2)," "(3)," etc. tacked onto the end). The functionality is pretty limited, but for, say, renaming a bunch of DSC####.jpg files to something more meaningful, like an event's date or name, can go a long way in keeping things organized. If you need more power, I recommend reading the comments over at Lifehacker, where readers recommend all manner of free and cheap apps for getting the job done.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-09-2006 @ 1:06PM
james 42 said...
Don't bother going to lifehacker, here you go: http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk.
Bulk Rename Utility, not a pretty name, but she gets the job done, though a bit cryptic.
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5-10-2006 @ 4:00AM
Claudiu Spulber said...
Well I've read through the comments from LifeHacker but I didn't see anyone mentioning Total Commander. This is by far (in my opinion) the best file manager and has a tool called Multi-Rename Tool (Ctr+M) that's everything you need for this batch renaming task.
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