Renaming items in a folder

Hello, All!

I could do this with Unix so easily but I cannot think how to
rename all (or at least a good number) of the items in a folder
with Windows. A typical example would be the automatic picture
numbers from a digital camera, like DSC00831. I would like to
simply type the names, line by line with a word processor, and
then replace the picture numbers. Has anyone any easy
suggestions or is my knowledge of Windows even more meager than
I suspect?

TIA

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland, USA

You open Explorer, select and highlight the file to be renamed, hit F2, type
the new name in the box. Repeat for each file to be renamed.

"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in message
news:%23ARE19LDGHA.3784@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hello, All!
>
> I could do this with Unix so easily but I cannot think how to rename all
> (or at least a good number) of the items in a folder with Windows. A
> typical example would be the automatic picture numbers from a digital
> camera, like DSC00831. I would like to simply type the names, line by line
> with a word processor, and then replace the picture numbers. Has anyone
> any easy suggestions or is my knowledge of Windows even more meager than I
> suspect?
>
> TIA
>
> James Silverton
> Potomac, Maryland, USA

Hi
Here's how

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...amephotos.mspx

Regards

John

"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in message
news:%23ARE19LDGHA.3784@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hello, All!
>
> I could do this with Unix so easily but I cannot think how to rename all
> (or at least a good number) of the items in a folder with Windows. A
> typical example would be the automatic picture numbers from a digital
> camera, like DSC00831. I would like to simply type the names, line by line
> with a word processor, and then replace the picture numbers. Has anyone
> any easy suggestions or is my knowledge of Windows even more meager than I
> suspect?
>
> TIA
>
> James Silverton
> Potomac, Maryland, USA

Jerry wrote on Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:37:16 -0800:

>>You open Explorer, select and highlight the file to be
>>renamed, hit F2, type
>>>the new name in the box. Repeat for each file to be renamed.

Thanks but that's the tedious process I was trying to avoid:-)

"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in
message
news:%23ARE19LDGHA.3784@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hello, All!
>
> I could do this with Unix so easily but I cannot think how to
> rename all (or at least a good number) of the items in a
> folder with Windows.
J> "James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in
J> message news:%23ARE19LDGHA.3784@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

James Silverton.

John wrote on Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:40:15 -0000:

J>
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...amephotos.mspx

J> Regards

J> John

J> "James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in
J> message news:%23ARE19LDGHA.3784@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
??>> Hello, All!
??>>
??>> I could do this with Unix so easily but I cannot think how
??>> to rename all (or at least a good number) of the items in
??>> a folder with Windows.

Again, I'm afraid I also knew about that useful technique but
what I would like to do is use quite different descriptive names
for each file. I know Explorer will do it but I find doing the
names one by one to be tedious. Just to avoid misunderstanding,
I might have:_
DSN00675
DSN00677
DSN00684.............
and I would like to replace them by say:
On the swings
How did the dog get in?
Going home..........

Typing the list of names with even someting like Word Pad is not
particularly time consuming but I can't think how to use the
list in the folder directory. If only the directory were an
Excel file!

James Silverton.

dir /a /b "c:\somewhere" >> "%userprofile%\desktop\filelist.txt"

ren "filename1" "filename2"

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"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in message news:%23nINNKMDGHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> John wrote on Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:40:15 -0000:
>
> J>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...amephotos.mspx
>
> J> Regards
>
> J> John
>
> J> "James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in
> J> message news:%23ARE19LDGHA.3784@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> ??>> Hello, All!
> ??>>
> ??>> I could do this with Unix so easily but I cannot think how
> ??>> to rename all (or at least a good number) of the items in
> ??>> a folder with Windows.
>
> Again, I'm afraid I also knew about that useful technique but
> what I would like to do is use quite different descriptive names
> for each file. I know Explorer will do it but I find doing the
> names one by one to be tedious. Just to avoid misunderstanding,
> I might have:_
> DSN00675
> DSN00677
> DSN00684.............
> and I would like to replace them by say:
> On the swings
> How did the dog get in?
> Going home..........
>
> Typing the list of names with even someting like Word Pad is not
> particularly time consuming but I can't think how to use the
> list in the folder directory. If only the directory were an
> Excel file!
>
> James Silverton.
>

David wrote on Fri, 30 Dec 2005 09:08:05 +1100:

dir /a /b "c:\somewhere" >>
"%userprofile%\desktop\filelist.txt"

ren "filename1" "filename2"


DC> ren "filename1" "filename2"

DC> --
DC> -----------------------------------------------------------
DC> Goodbye Web Diary
DC>
http://margokingston.typepad.com/har....html#comments
DC> =================================================
DC> "James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in
DC> message news:%23nINNKMDGHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
??>>
??>> Typing the list of names with even something like Word Pad
??>> is not particularly time consuming but I can't think how
??>> to use the list in the folder directory.

Thank you David!

Now that looks good! It could be done by setting up a Script
file I guess but I tend to forget about those.


James Silverton.

In Word using Find and Replace it is a cinch. ^p is a paragraph in word. So in File list text

Find
^p
Replace
" "^pren "

Prefixes all but the first line with

ren "

and adds

" "

to the end of the line (check the last line for a spurious entry)

so all you do is go to end of each line and type

newfilename"

Name the new file something.bat. Test it on a copy of your data.
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Goodbye Web Diary
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=================================================
"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in message news:uqbSIZMDGHA.2320@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> David wrote on Fri, 30 Dec 2005 09:08:05 +1100:
>
> dir /a /b "c:\somewhere" >>
> "%userprofile%\desktop\filelist.txt"
>
> ren "filename1" "filename2"
>
>
> DC> ren "filename1" "filename2"
>
> DC> --
> DC> -----------------------------------------------------------
> DC> Goodbye Web Diary
> DC>
> http://margokingston.typepad.com/har....html#comments
> DC> =================================================
> DC> "James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in
> DC> message news:%23nINNKMDGHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> ??>>
> ??>> Typing the list of names with even something like Word Pad
> ??>> is not particularly time consuming but I can't think how
> ??>> to use the list in the folder directory.
>
> Thank you David!
>
> Now that looks good! It could be done by setting up a Script
> file I guess but I tend to forget about those.
>
>
> James Silverton.
>

David wrote on Fri, 30 Dec 2005 09:29:36 +1100:

DC> Find
DC> ^p
DC> Replace
DC> " "^pren "

DC> Prefixes all but the first line with

DC> ren "

DC> and adds

DC> " "

DC> to the end of the line (check the last line for a spurious
DC> entry)

DC> so all you do is go to end of each line and type

DC> newfilename"

DC> Name the new file something.bat. Test it on a copy of your
??>> Thank you David!
??>>
??>> Now that looks good! It could be done by setting up a
??>> Script file I guess but I tend to forget about those.
??>>
??>> James Silverton.
??>>

Again, many thanks and I'll give it a try very soon!

James Silverton.

"James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in message
news:%23nINNKMDGHA.2040@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> John wrote on Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:40:15 -0000:
>
> J>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...amephotos.mspx
>
> J> Regards
>
> J> John
>
> J> "James Silverton" <not.jim.silverton@comcast.not> wrote in
> J> message news:%23ARE19LDGHA.3784@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> ??>> Hello, All!
> ??>>
> ??>> I could do this with Unix so easily but I cannot think how
> ??>> to rename all (or at least a good number) of the items in
> ??>> a folder with Windows.
>
> Again, I'm afraid I also knew about that useful technique but what I would
> like to do is use quite different descriptive names for each file. I know
> Explorer will do it but I find doing the names one by one to be tedious.
> Just to avoid misunderstanding, I might have:_
> DSN00675
> DSN00677
> DSN00684.............
> and I would like to replace them by say:
> On the swings
> How did the dog get in?
> Going home..........
>
> Typing the list of names with even someting like Word Pad is not
> particularly time consuming but I can't think how to use the list in the
> folder directory. If only the directory were an Excel file!
>
> James Silverton.

Hmm..so he wants an excel file, does he?

Well, before the excel file generation path, try this batch:


[1]@echo off
[2]echo @echo off>jsg.bat
[3]for /f "DELIMS=" %%i in ( 'dir/S/b/a-d "r:\directory\*.*" ' ) do echo ren
2^>nul "%%~dpnxi"
"%%~nxi">>jsg.bat

Each line begins [number]. Lines will be wrapped in transmission and need to
be rejoined. The [number] at the beginning of each line needs to be removed.

This batch processes r:\directory, finding all files (*.*) in the
directory-tree (remove the "/S" switch from after the DIR to scan the target
directory only) and creating a file (jsg.bat) which has the structure

@echo off
ren 2>nul "r:\directory\file1.ext" "file1.ext"
ren 2>nul "r:\directory\file2.ext" "file2.ext"
ren 2>nul "r:\directory\file3.ext" "file3.ext"
....

which can then be text-edited (using EDIT or Notepad, not wordpad as wordpad
tends to save unwanted formatting data...) to create your new filenames.

The "2>nul" suppresses any STDERR messages that may be created when the
batch is run. Remove the 2^>nul from [3] if you want to see these messages
(which can be useful if the filenames contain some characters to which DOS
is sensitive - like % or & for instance [best to avoid these characters])

Now if you really want it in Excel format, change the batch to:

[1]@echo off
[2]if exist jsg.csv del jsg.csv
[3]for /f "DELIMS=" %%i in ( 'dir/S/b/a-d "r:\directory\*.*" ' ) do echo
"%%~dpnxi",
"%%~nxi">>jsg.csv

which will create jsg.csv with two quote-delimited, comma-separated columns.
Leave out the ,"%%~nxi" part to create one column if that's what you want.

HTH

....Bill