FolderMatch allows you to rename a single file/folder or multiple at a time.  You may rename items while comparing folders or you may do so as a separate task.

 

hmtoggle_arrow1How to rename a single file or folder

 

You can rename a single file/folder on the Compare Folders window by following these simple steps:

 

Step 1: Select the file/folder from a Comparison Result Pane.

 

Step 2: Choose “Rename” from either the File menu, the Tools toolbar button drop-down, or the right-click context menu.

 

This Rename dialog will appear:

 

 

RenameSingle

 

Step 3: Enter the new name and press OK.

 

 

hmtoggle_arrow1How to rename multiple files/folders

 

To rename multiple files/folders you use the Rename Multiple Items tool.  

 

The Rename Multiple Items tool

The Rename Multiple Items tool

 

The process is to add files/folder to the list, choose rename actions, preview the name changes, and then finalize the changes.

 

 

You can open this tool from either the Start Page or the Compare Folders window.  

 

1.Open the tool from the Start Page

 

Press the Rename button while in Tools mode. The tool will appear with no files/folders listed.

 

startpage_renamebutton

 

2.Open the tool from the Compare Folders window

 

Select multiple files from a Comparison Result Pane then choose "Rename" from either the File menu, the Tools toolbar button drop-down, or the right-click context menu.  The  tool will appear with all the selected items listed.

 

When the tool opens up, it may list file/folder names or it may be empty.  This depends on how you arrived here. (See the discussion above.) If the list is empty, you must add some files/folders to the list. 

 

 

 

To add files and folders to the list of items to rename, 1) use the Select Folder/Select Files buttons, or 2) double-click on a folder or the "Up to Parent" entry in the list.  The program places the names of the selected files and folders in the Original Name column of the list.

 

Method 1: Use the Select Folder/Files buttons

 

To add items to the list, press either the Select Folder or Select Files button which appears to the right of the list.

 

renamemultipleitems_addbuttons_withlabels

 

To select individual files from a folder, use the Select Files button. The program loads the files you select from the Select Files window into the list.

 

To load all items from a folder, use the Select Folder button. The program loads the root-level contents of the selected folder into the list.  The first item added to the list is an "up to parent" entry.  his item is not a file or folder. It’s a navigational aid you can use to go up to the parent of the current folder.  

 

Method 2: Double-click on a folder or the "up to parent" entry in the list

 

When the list contains folder contents, you can load the contents of the parent folder or of one of the child folders by double-clicking on them.

 

Select Folder sample list 

Select Folder sample list

 

 

Note that the first item in the list is “\..”. We refer to this as the "up to parent" entry. This represents the parent of the current folder. Double-click on the “up to parent” item in the list to navigate up to the parent folder. This will replace the contents of the list with the contents of the parent folder. 

 

If you double-click any of the folders listed, the program will navigate to that folder. This will replace the contents of the list with the contents of the folder you clicked on. For example, using the folder contents shown in the image above, you can double-click on the ABP Files folder to drill down into that folder and replace the current list with the contents of the ABP Files folder.  

 

Now you have added items to the list, you rename them by selecting some rename actions.

 

 

 
Once you've got some items listed, you need to tell the program how you want to rename them.  You do this by selecting Rename Actions.  The rename actions appear in the three tabs (General, Other, Pattern Matching) on the bottom of the window.

 

Before we dive into the options, let’s define some terms. A file name comprises two parts: the name and the extension. The name is the portion that appears before the “dot”. The extension is the portion that appears after the “dot”. Some items have no extension.  

 

Example)  
File = "myfile.txt"

 

Name = "myfile"

Extension = "txt"

 

 

RenameMultiple_GeneralTab

 

Capitalization options

 

The capitalization list contains eleven ways for you to change the capitalization of file/folder names.

 

Example) original text = "A Long ROAD"

 

Option

Description

Example

Leave Unchanged

Make no changes to the case of the item’s name.

"A Long ROAD"

Invert case of each character

Switch upper case characters to lower case and switch lower case characters to upper case.

"a lONG road"

Upper Case

Upper case every character.

"A LONG ROAD"

Lower Case

Lower case every character.

"a long road"        

Proper Case

Upper case the first character of each word, and lower case the remaining characters of each word. (Also known as “Title Case”) 

"A Long Road"

Sentence Case

Upper case the first character of the first word, and lower case all other characters.

"A long road"

Snake Case

Lower case all characters and replace all spaces with a single underscore.

"a_long_road"

Screaming Snake Case

Upper case all characters and replace all spaces with a single underscore.

"A_LONG_ROAD"

Camel Case

Lower case the first word and proper case the remaining words.  Also remove all spaces.

"aLongRoad"

Dash Case

Lower case all characters and replace all spaces with a single dash/hyphen. (Also known as “Hyphen Case” and “Kebab Case”) 

"a-long-road"

Train Case

Upper case all characters and replace all spaces with a single dash/hyphen.  

"A-LONG-ROAD"

 

Other Options

 

Example) original name = "Customer records.xls"; entered text = "XYZ"

 

Option

Description

Example

Remove Internal Spaces

Remove all spaces from the item name

"Customerrecords.xls"

Short File Name

Change the item name to the 8.3 naming format.  The file name will be shortened to 8 characters and the extension will be shortened to 3 characters. See here for more information.

"Custom~1.xls"

Remove Extension

Strip the extension (and DOT) from the item name.

"Customer records"

Add Prefix to File Names

Add the entered text to the beginning of the file name.

"XYZCustomer records.xls"

Add Suffix to File Names

Add the entered text to the end of the file name.

"Customer recordsXYZ.xls"

Replace Extension With Text

Replace the file extension with the entered text.

"Customer records.XYZ"

Replace File Name With Text

Replace the file name with the entered text.

"XYZ.xls"

 

 

 
renamemultipleitems_othertab
 

Remove Characters

 

Use this to remove characters from the file name or the extension. You can remove characters from the beginning or the end of the file name/extension. Enter the number of characters to remove and where to remove the characters from.

 

Example)

Original name = "dbo.sp_GetUsers.prc"

Location = From Beginning of File Name

Length = 4

 

Revised name = "sp_GetUsers.prc"

 

Generate Sequence of Numbers

 

The program can generate a sequence of numbers and use it as the file’s name or the file’s extension. You can also add it to the end of the file name. To generate the sequence, enter the number that begins the sequence, the increment, and the length of the generated sequence.

 

Example)

 

Original names

"January Sales.xls"

"February Sales.xls"

"March Sales.xls"

 

Options

Starts With = 1

Increment By = 1

Length = 2

Replace file name

 

Revised names

"01.xls"

"02.xls"

"03.xls"

 

 

 
RenameMultiple_RegExTab
 
 

If none of the predefined rename actions do what you need, there’s a good chance that pattern matching will. FolderMatch uses regular expressions for its pattern matching.  A regular expression is a way to express how a computer program should look for a specified pattern in text and then what to do when the pattern match is found. The purpose of the pattern is to match specific characters in text so that the program can extract or replace the characters.

 

There are many implementations of regular expressions. We use VBScript regular expressions. Explaining VBScript regular expressions is beyond this help document. If you want to learn more about this powerful and flexible pattern matching scripting language, search the Internet for tutorials. Here is one to get you started: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/vbscript/vbscript_reg_expressions.htm

 

Note that the program requires both Search and Replace values.

 

Example) Convert one or more spaces in a file name to a single underscore

 

Original name = "Quarterly Sales  Report                 for ACME    Widget Company.doc"

 

Search/Replace values

 

Search=(\w+)\s+

Replace=$1_

 

Revised Name = "Quarterly_Sales_Report_for_ACME_Widget_Company.doc"

 

 

 

 
Before you change the file and folder names, we recommend that you preview the changes by pressing the Preview button. When you do so, the program applies the selected rename actions to the items in the list and shows the new names. It also checks if the new name is valid and shows you if there are any problems.  

 

RenameMultiple_Statuses

 

The Revised Name column shows you the name of the item with the selected rename actions applied.
 
The Status column shows one of four statuses:

 

renamemultiple_status_ok

OK

The new name is valid and does not conflict with another name in the list.

renamemultiple_status_unchanged

Unchanged

The new name is the same as the original name so will not be changed/renamed.

renamemultiple_status_exclamation

Conflict

The new name is already in use by another item in the list.

renamemultiple_status_exclamation

Invalid Name

The new name is not a valid Windows file/folder name.

 

The program notifies you of an issue in multiple ways:  The Status value says “Invalid” or “Conflict”, a warning image is shown renamemultiple_status_exclamation, and the Revised Name background color is a light red.  Hovering your mouse pointer over a status of Conflict or Invalid Name will present additional explanatory information in a tooltip box.

 

renamemultipleitems_conflicttooltip

 

After you correct the rename issues, you can complete the name changes.

 

 

 

After previewing the name changes and addressing any issues, you can apply the new names by pressing the Rename button.

 
renamemultipleitems_renamebtn