How to Rename Multiple Files At Once
This is a nice trick I bet not every one knows. I don’t know about you but I just hate the DSCN(XXX).jpg file name the digital camera gives pictures. This is especially annoying when you have the pictures from your latest trip to London mixed with your grandpa’s birthday party. After you download all of them to the hard drive, your directory looks like this:
I would prefer if the pictures were named London(1).jpg, London(2).jpg… and Grandpa(1).jpg, Grandpa(2).jpg and so on. Well, this trick will take care of this.
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Select the files that belong to the London trip.
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Right click the file you want to be the “base” file, and select rename. Change it’s name to “London.jpg” and magically all the other selected files will change their name to “London(X).jpg” ( if there are many files it might take a few seconds so hold tight).
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Do the same for the pictures from grandpa’s birthday party.
Your directory will look like this:
How easy is that!!! Indeed a handy trick.
Enjoy
Amit.
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April 7th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Here we have 2 problems.
If I rename the files ( IMG_052.jpg,IMG_053.jpg,IMG_054.jpg,etc) to TEST_052.jpg as per your mentioned procedure, then files rename becomes (IMG_052.jpg, IMG_052(1).jpg etc.) which is somewhat wierd.
Other thing is undo support. Explorer could only support undo upto 5.
anyway, i dont know that renaming can be done this way too. good post.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Nice one was not aware such a thing existed
April 13th, 2008 at 12:33 am
[...] How to rename Multiple Files at Once - Oh man has this driven me crazy over the past few years. [...]
May 7th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
[...] cool trick for renaming files you did not knowread more | digg [...]
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:26 pm
thanks a lot amit, your trick really worked
July 1st, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I somehow decided that it was 2009, so told my camera to transfer my photos and rename them Glastonbury 2009, and my softwear automatically adds 0001 etc to the end. If I use this method (to change all my photos to have 2008 instead of 2009) I only get 1, 2, 3 at the end, so then when my photos go in alphabetical order, I get 1, 10, 11, 12……2, 20, 21, 22……3, 30, 31, 32 etc! It would be so much better if it put the additional zeros.
July 6th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Really useful!! Thanks a lot!!
July 18th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Nice trick…
it can be found at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320167
How about renaming just the middle part of multiple files?
July 20th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
This is just what I been wishing for and it works great. One question (or problem though) is there any way to add subsequent files and have them pick up the numbering sequence assigned to the orginal batch….If you can could you please answer me by email as I don’t browse much.
Thank You So Much.
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 am
I agreed with you
August 21st, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I don’t know what all the fuss is about. I have a simple program called ‘Rename It’ on all my computers, and have been using it for years.I’v been using it so long I can’t now even remember where I got it from. Works with all Windows OS including Vista. It adds any prefix or suffix you want to all the files in any chosen folder, and will also automatically number them too.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Great Feature to know and use for quick rename.
I have downloaded Irfanview (freeware) from http://www.irfanview.net/ it allows great flexibility in renaming files. Also has basic image editing capabilities, sideshows, screen savers, contact sheets and more.
Oh, don’t know if it was mentioned, but the Windows rename technique works with both XP and Vista.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
This is cool but what I really need is one to change the extension in a batch process.
I have home Video converted to DivX and all end in .divx.
Anyone know how to change them to .avi so my DVD player will recognise them and so my PC shows thumbnails?
I have over 70 files so really could do with a fix for this.
August 24th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
and for all us oldsters who still have memories of DOS …
I use the command prompt and do my batch renames in DOS, many of the old DOS commands are still functional…even in Vista. And this is still the easiest way I know to get a detailed file listing printout of a directory that can actually be piped to a text document so you are not working with an image but with real live text.
Just be carefull that none of the files you are working on are open in your windows program.
Ah…. the good old days when people really worked their computers
December 21st, 2008 at 4:22 am
Amit- My hat goes off to you dude! Talk about easy! Thank you very much!
January 16th, 2009 at 1:43 am
Great! Your advice saved me a great deal of time! I’m really thankful!
February 28th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
YOU ROCK!!!!!!!