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Renaming Files (Windows)

Black Hole

Black Hole

May contain traces of nut
Anybody got a clever way to replace a load of "%20" strings with a space, in a folder full of filenames?
 
Try "BulkRenameUtility" it's free and extremely versatile. I use it all the time to rename blocks of photo files.


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Yep, setting the appropriate options can be a bit tricky (so many to choose from!) but once you figure it out it's an excellent tool.


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There are a few of these utilities. Look for Oscar's Renamer and Advanced Renamer too.
 
Powershell:

Code: 
Dir | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name -replace "%20"," " }

Edit: I quite like Powershell with its mix of Bourne shell and TCL with a bit of Perl thrown in...
 
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Trev said:
That's 4 I have to chose from now. Oh, woe is me. How will I ever cope?:frantic:
Click to expand...
It's much easier in Linux/Unix. I do like the idea of pumping the output of a directory listing into an editor, though.

Metamorphose. I don't bother with the rest any more.

And you can even rename your files according to mp3 tags these days!
 
I might have a quick look at Metamorphose (the name is attractive), test it on the same file set, and decide between it and BRU. Parametric replacements will also be useful at times.

The problem with a command line method is having to remember the syntax when only needing it once in a blue moon.

Another option I had forgotten is to see what Directory Opus (my de facto Explorer replacement) has to offer, buried away (I know the new release has a tool, but I'm running behind because upgrades are not cheap).

My normal approach (ultimately flexible) goes like this, because DOS is etched in my memory (but BRU was much faster):
  1. dir > dir.txt
  2. Edit dir.txt using global replacement etc so that lines read 'ren "<old filename>" "<new filename>"'
  3. ren dir.txt namechange.bat
  4. namechange
 
That is what I used to do, the redirected dir! :cool:

Then use some macros and regular expressions to edit it into a batch file.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just for info: BRU supports a number of metadata related items for photos and audio (e.g. Date photo taken, etc.). I've not fully explored this but have used date taken to rename photos ...


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Black Hole said:
My normal approach (ultimately flexible) goes like this, because DOS is etched in my memory (but BRU was much faster):
  1. dir > dir.txt
  2. Edit dir.txt using global replacement etc so that lines read 'ren "<old filename>" "<new filename>"'
  3. ren dir.txt namechange.bat
  4. namechange
Click to expand...
  1. dir/b > namechange.bat
  2. Edit namechange.bat
  3. namechange
dir/b makes life a lot easier. This is similar to the technique I use to convert radio .ts files to .mp2 files using ffmpeg (no CF).
 
FreeCommander in Windows and Double Commander in Linux both have excellent GUI-based multifile renamers. I've tried most of the others mentioned but these remain my utilities of choice.
 
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