Renaming a list of files

Basic Syntax:

<Source Filename><Separator><Destination Filename>

The Source filename and Destination Filename could have the path to it, or it can contain the filename by itself.

The Separator can be pretty much anything (e.g. Comma, Tab, Question Mark, Quote, Braket, etc...)

There are several options to renaming a list, all designed to give you the most flexibility. The most basic form is to give a list with the original filename separated by something, followed by the new filename.

Here's an example of a comma separated list with no directories specified:

Module1-0001-0004.bas,Module1.bas
Module2-0002-0005.bas,Module2.bas
Form-0003-0005-0002.frm,Form.frm
frmMain-0002-0001.frm,frmMain.frm
frmMain-0004-0001-0003-0003.frx,frmMain.frx
Form-0003-0006.frx,Form.frx
Form1-0001-0007.log,Form1.log

In that example, there were 7 files that are to be renamed, and since the path is not specified in either the source, or destination filename, File Renamer will only look in the current directory that you've navigated to, if the files are not there, you will get a warning telling you of the problem.

You have the option of specifying either the Source directory, or the Destination directory, or both.

If you specify just the source directory, the File Renamer will look for the file there regardless of where File Renamer is currently pointed to. For instance, if File Renamer was looking at c:\temp, but you had a source list like:

c:\work\Module1-0001-0004.bas,Module1.bas
c:\work\Module2-0002-0005.bas,Module2.bas
c:\program files\Form-0003-0005-0002.frm,Form.frm
c:\windows\frmMain-0002-0001.frm,frmMain.frm
c:\program files\frmMain-0004-0001-0003-0003.frx,frmMain.frx
c:\work\Form-0003-0006.frx,Form.frx
c:\work\Form1-0001-0007.log,Form1.log

Then File Renamer would find the files in each directory. Since the destination directory wasn't specified, then it will rename the files in the same directory as the source.

Auto Move files

If you specify a different destination folder than the source folder in your list, then File Renamer will automatically move the files to the new destination folder. For example, the following would rename c:\work\Module1-0001-0004.bas to c:\program files\Module1.bas

c:\work\Module1-0001-0004.bas,c:\program files\Module1.bas

Other Separator

To use a separator other than Comma or Tab, select the Other radio button and type in what your separator will be. In the picture below, we've selected the Question Mark to be our separator.

Validate List

The validate list button will check to make sure the list syntax is correct and verify the files exist.

The Preview and Apply buttons will also validate before they process the files, but it's still a good idea to get in the habit of pressing the 'Validate' button to double check your entries.