Sometimes, you may want to rename a bunch of documents, photos, music or videos. If you’re a photographer, your image names might contain a date-time stamp with incremental numbers. If you’ve got a large music collection, your file names could be long and complex.
Setting alphanumeric file names will give them meaningful names that are easy to find, readable and descriptive. We’ll guide you through some of the common ways to do so.
Set alphanumeric file names with the help of Easy File Renamer (EFR). EFR follows Google Software Principles. Download Now.
Method 1: Manually Batch Rename Files
If you need to rename a few files located in a single folder, you can do so manually. If you want to set alphanumeric file names for a large set of files located in multiple folders, your best bet is using a specialized software (refer to method # 2).
- Open up File Explorer (earlier known as, Windows Explorer).
- Navigate to the directory that contains files you want to rename.
- Select the files you want to rename.
- To select all files in the folder, use Ctrl + A.
- To select random files, use Ctrl + Click.
- To select files in an orderly manner, use Shift + Click.
- Press the F2 key to select the current rename of the selected file(s).
- Type the new name and hit the Enter key to save the name.
Disadvantages
- Difficult to perform and repetitive if your files are located in two or more folders. For example: If the files you want to rename are located in numerous folders D:\Folder1\, D:\Folder1\SubFolder1 and D:\Folder2, you will have to perform the same task repeatedly for each folder.
- Renaming is restricted to only one pattern. In contrast to a specialized software that offers numerous renaming patterns, you can only add a common keyword to all files besides the file count index.
Method 2: Automatically Batch Rename Files using Easy File Renamer
You can also batch rename your files using a specialized software such as Easy File Renamer. Here’s how:
- Download and install Easy File Renamer.
- Click on the System Renamer tab.
- Add the files you want to rename:
- To add individual files, click on Files > Add Files.
- To add folders that contain your files, click on Folders > Add Folders.
- Once you’ve added the files, select your desired renaming pattern from the Select Rule drop-down box.
- Select the relevant options and then click the Add Rule button to confirm the rule.
- You can also add multiple renaming patterns if required.
- Click on Rename.
Renaming Patterns:
- Add numbering: You can add numbering to your files such as Doc 1.docx, Doc 2.docx, Doc 3.docx.
- Insert text: You can insert custom text into your filenames. The custom text can be anything like the author name, artist, origin, etc.
- Remove text: You can also remove unwanted text from the file names. For instance: If you have downloaded music files from the Internet, they might contain the website name in each filename. You can get rid of such junk text and make the filename shorter and easier to remember.
- Change case: You can also change the character case from upper to lower and vice versa.
Benefits:
- Displays new filename preview before making changes to your files. The actual file names are changed only after you click the Rename button.
- Automatically rename hundreds of files in batches from different folders or subfolders.
- Rename Cloud Files: Do you use cloud storage? Who doesn’t! Easily rename files on your favorite cloud platform using Cloud File Renamer without having to download them. Supported platforms include OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.
- Music Fixer: Using the Music Fixer, you can import your existing iTunes library. You can change the ID3 tags and batch edit the titles, artists, album, and much more. EFR supports popular ID3 tags including ID3 v1, ID3 v2.3, and ID3 v2.4.
- Smooth Large Data Transfer: Sometimes you have to copy a lot of files but the copying process takes forever and then ends up with an error. You can avoid such delays and errors using the in-house batch file copying/ moving functionality in Easy File Renamer.