Renaming many files at once

Renaming was introduced in the first tutorial (here)

To rename a single file simply hit the R-button for a highlighted file. Renaming a batch of files might be very useful for some people but is a little more complicated. Names are important and getting them right will make your filing system smoother and your life easier.

At the main screen select a few files you fancy renaming then hit the R-button.

This is another of those 'controls on the left - results on the right' screens. The main control picks one of the four methods. There is an explanation provided below for quick reference. Now is a good time to click on each method to see what they do.

On the right you will see two columns of filenames. The first column lists the files before renaming, while the second shows what each would be after renaming. Between the columns is a 'traffic light' display.

This is just a 'this is what it would be like if you pressed the R-button'. Nothing actually happens until you actually hit R to do the dirty deed.

Have a play by entering some text to see the details. Remember, nothing permanent will happen until R is pressed.

Although you could use the renaming facility to change tags, normally it is better to use the tagging facility (see here)to set and remove tags.

When replacing part of name the text you are replacing may not appear in all of the list of files. That isn't a problem for the program, files that don't match will stay the same, but you may want to watch out for something not going quite to plan. If this happens then the 'traffic light' between the filenames will turn amber.

By adding an extra unnecessary zero to the front of a serial it makes the numbering system stand out when the files are listed. For example if you have 20 files then starting at "00" or "01" would be sufficient but "000" or "001" helps your brain twig that all these '0...' are sequenced.

When adding serial numbers it is a really good idea to use leading zeroes. The table below shows the effect of including leading zeroes.

With	Without
File01.txt	File1.txt
File02.txt	File10.txt (out of order)
File03.txt	File11.txt (out of order)
File04.txt	File2.txt
File05.txt	File3.txt
etc	etc.
File08.txt	File6.txt
File09.txt	File7.txt
File10.txt	File8.txt
File11.txt	File9.txt

Tricky situations

If you are replacing part of a name and choose to replace the whole of the name with nothing then you'll get a red traffic light.
If you try to give a file a name that already exists you'll get an amber traffic light.
If you are renumbering a series of files which is already numbered there is the possibility of getting an amber for trying to rename to an existing file but the renamer will normally be able to cope with this. For example: Existing files F001.txt, F002.txt, F003.txt Rename to new serialised set "F" starting at 000. F001.txt renames happily to F000.txt but F002.txt is trying to be renamed to F001.txt which already exists and will raise an amber warning. However when renaming actually happens this will normally sort itself out by the use of great skill by the programmer.

Errors and warnings

With any luck when you press R everything will go according to plan. However there are situations that can't always be foreseen. In this case BFM will tell you what the problem was.

One important thing to remember is that the file extension is never changed. This means that you can quickly label a bunch of different files with the 'same' name. (The quick reference for New serialised set gives an example.) This is a bit like paper-clipping a bunch of papers together and is more flexible than going to the trouble of setting up a new sub-container.

The key thing to remember is that nothing actually happens until the R-button is pressed. So you can set up your renaming at leisure and trap possible trouble spots before going ahead.

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