I am amazed at how often I can find
a piece of free software to accomplish precisely the task
I wish – seemingly no matter how obscure the
requirements. Suppose, for example, I wanted to
remove all the hyphens from the names of multiple files
and, at the same time, standardize the file names to use
just the first eight characters. No doubt, that
with sufficient time and effort, I could write some sort
of script to undertake this task, but is there an
existing utility program that can do the job?
As it happens, I did need precisely
this capability – with the additional requirement to
have the renaming process work for both file and folder
names.I tried a number of batch file renaming
programs before I found Bulk Rename Utility which could
handle my specific tasks – and much more!
The file directory tree allows
selection of a folder, at which point the names of the
files inside the folder are displayed in the large
window.The non-intuitive part of the process is
that you need to select one, or more, or all of the files
within this window on which the renaming operations are
to be conducted.
In the example shown in the
screenshot, I have selected all four files in the
\agtemp2 folder.In the “Replace (3)”
section of the window I have opted to replace the hyphen
character with nothing.And, in the “Remove
(5)” section, I have chosen to remove characters in
the file name “From” 9 “to” 23.
As can be seen in the preview of the
new file names (shown in green) this removes all the
hyphens and retains the first eight characters of the
file names, while leaving the file extensions unchanged.
The really useful part of this process is that, with the
files selected, the preview is dynamic so you can see
what effect your particular renaming selections will
have.
Pressing the “Rename”
button in the lower-right corner of the window brings up
a warning message to double check that the selections are
correct.Continue and the files are renamed –
there is no undo feature!
The program comes with an extensive,
41-page manual, and an offer of on-line support by
E-mail.However, once you get over the shock of
having so many renaming options available, a little study
will allow you to readily tailor the program’s
operation to your specific purposes.
Note that, in addition to removing
characters, Bulk Rename Utility will allow you to add
text, numbers and dates to file names and let you change
the case. And, yes, it does rename multiple folders
in the same manner as files.
Bottom Line:
Bulk Rename Utility (Freeware)
Jim Willsher
Version 2.7.1.2
http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/
Originally published: March, 2014
