Tip #3608 - Rename Your Files: Bulk Style
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Rename
Your Files: Bulk Style
Have you ever had
the need to rename a load of files all at the same time?
For instance, here's
a folder of files:
As you can see, they
are a mixture of upper and lower case starting letters, after which, you
might prefer some better uniformity. Maybe something like this?
Or, maybe you have
downloaded some files from the Internet and the file names have extra
symbols (like * and #, etc.) in them that you want to get rid of.
Now, with a small
number of files, that shouldn't be too difficult, as Windows has a rename
facility. But, if you have a lot, the job then becomes onerous.
So, enter in bulk
file renamers, which, as their name suggests, allows you to do the job
in one easy and quick operation.
Of these utilities,
one of the best and easiest to use is a free program called LupasRename.
(No, I have no idea why it’s called Lupas!)
Head here
to get to the main page and click on the Download link.
This brings you to
the page where I recommend that you select the indicated download, which
also includes an installer, as seen below.
Downloading and installation
is a breeze and soon, you will be seeing the opening screen, like this:
Have a quick look
along the toolbar and menus to get familiar with it and then just "dive
in" to begin working.
The first thing we'll
want to do is navigate to the folder where our files can be found. So,
click where I have indicated with the red circle below and you will be
able to use an Explorer type panel to get to your necessary folders.
Here we see the screen
with our files, now in the left hand panel.
Now, let’s see
how we can go about changing the names of the files. The screen below
shows the first steps we should take.
If you only want to
rename some of the files in the folder, you'll need to just click on these
and make sure the box that reads “Only rename the selected
files” is checked. If you want to rename all the files
in a folder, uncheck the box and leave the folder as it is.
Next, we proceed as
follows:
First, select what
changes you want to make to the file. In this case, we want all the initial
letters to be uppercase, so go ahead and choose “First Letter
Up” (1). But, we have a whole gamut of options open to
us. We could make all the letters uppercase or lower case, we could chop
out the first letter or symbol of the file name or insert the text before
the file name, etc. Just browse around the screen and experiment.
When you are happy
with your choice, go to the spectacles symbol (2) at the top of the page.
Clicking on this will show a preview in the right hand pane (3) of what
the changes will achieve, without actually executing them. So, have a
look and see if it’s what you wanted or expected.
If you are happy with
that, go ahead and commit by pressing the Rename button
(4) and it’s done!
Thus far, we have
worked on text files, but if you want to make some changes to numbers,
you must select the AutoNumber tag, to get to this screen:
Again, you have a
large number of options.
It is not my intention
in this introductory article to go in to all the options available in
detail. I suggest you play with the various options and see what they
do or if all else fails, read through the very useful Help
file.
So, I hope this solves
a very common problem for computer users everywhere, while it enables
you to rename files to your heart's content!
~ David Woodford
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