IF00152
Rename Multiple
Files In Windows XP!
One of the most tedious tasks imaginable is renaming a series of files one by
one. I'm not proud to admit it, but before I discovered file renaming utilities
I used to sit and perform this task on digital photo files. XP makes the task a
lot easier with a built-in group file rename function. Simply select the files
you want to rename and right click on the first file in the group then click
Rename. Type the new filename in the following format; filename (1).ext
- Let's say you had a group of related text files you wanted to sequentially
name based on creation date. Order the files by creation date then select the
group of files using Click+Shift+Click. Right click the first file in the group
and click Rename. Enter a filename ( Ex: My New How-To (1).doc ). Each file
would be sequentially renamed in the order My New How-To (1).doc, My New How-To
(2).doc, etc.
- The files you select to rename do not have to be contiguous. They can be
selected using Click+Ctrl+Click rather than Click+Shift+Click, but they will be
renamed in sequential order, not the order you selected the files. The only
caveat is to be sure you right click the first file in the series before right
clicking and selecting Rename.
- When entering the filename for the series, the character entered in the
parenthesis for the first file does not have to be a number and the filename
will appear using whatever character you entered -- but the rest of the files
will have numbers in the parenthesis starting with (1).
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