You can rename a group of files all at once, by entering text to add before or after the existing filename, or you can replace the file extension, or you can convert the selected filenames to all upper case or to all lower case. For digital photographers, adding the name of an event or trip to the numbered filenames created by the camera will make it easy to manage photographs, while still keeping the images in time order.
Individual File Renaming
Select the files to be renamed and click on Rename... on the near side.
FileTiger will show the first selected filename. You can edit the filename, or type over (replace) the selected text.
Click OK or press Enter; FileTiger will show the next selected file.
These characters are not allowed in Windows filenames: | < > \ ^ = ? / [ ] " ; , *
UPPER/lower Case
Select the files to be renamed, click on Rename... on the near side, and then click on either of the case buttons at the bottom of the screen. All the selected files will be renamed, as needed for all UPPER or all lower case.
The lower case conversion is particularly useful for website developers who are using Unix web hosting, where case matters, and http://www.filetiger.com/TEST.html is a different destination than http://www.filetiger.com/test.html. Keeping all filenames in lower case can make a web site much easier to manage.
Wild Card File Renaming
Select the files to be renamed, click on Rename... on the near side, and then enter a wild card mask, as below, and click on OK or press Enter. A confirmation screen will appear--confirm that the mask will do what you planned, and click on either Yes to continue to the next confirmation, Yes to All to complete renaming all files using the same mask, or Cancel to stop immediately.
Wild card renaming starts when you enter a wild card mask, so you can start renaming selected files manually, and then continue or complete the renaming task with a wild card mask for all remaining files.
Creating a Mask
Use * to represent the existing filename, or *. to represent the existing filename without the extension.
Anything typed before the * will be added before each filename.
Anything typed after the * will be added after every filename.
When using *. anything typed after the period will REPLACE the extension.
A mask may use BOTH text before and after the * or *. characters.
Examples
If the files D0123.JPG and D0124.JPG are selected, here are the results of several masks:
Vacation 2004 *: Vacation 2004 D0123.JPG, Vacation 2004 D0124.JPG
*-bad: D0123.JPG-bad, D0124.JPG-bad
Anniversary Party-*.jpg: Anniversary Party-D0123.jpg, Anniversary Party-D0124.jpg
Careful: to replace an extension, the period must follow the asterisk:
*.jpg: D0123.jpg, D0124.jpg
* .jpg: D0123.JPG .jpg, D0124.JPG .jpg
Careful: if you change an extension, Windows treats the renamed file differently when you try to open it. This is both useful and dangerous. Renaming a damaged configuration file from settings.cnf to settings.old will inactivate it (in some programs). Renaming a photograph from pic.jpg to pic.txt will make Windows try to open it as a text file, and will fail.
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