Difference between revisions of "ReNamer:Quick Guide"

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== Basic usage ==
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Using ReNamer is very simple. Just follow the four steps shown below.
  
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Using ReNamer
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[[Image:]]
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In the previous chapter, we saw how to use ReNamer in four steps. We will explore each of those steps more detail here.
 
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Placing files and folders in Renamer's work area
 
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In this section, we will see how to place files and folders in ReNamer's working area (also called the “Files pane”). This consists of (a) adding files and folders, (b) removing some files from the pane, and (c) Changing the order of files in the pane.
 
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ReNamer has multiple methods for adding files and folders to its work area (the Files pane):
 
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The  button adds only the selected files and subfolders in a folder. Use it to make finer selections.
 
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The  button adds all the files in a folder (i.e., bulk-selection). It also has filtering options to control what is added to the Files pane.
 
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Copy files/folders from Windows Explorer (or any other application).and paste them in ReNamer
 
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Drag and drop files and folders into the Files pane (from Windows Explorer or any other application).
 
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You can build a collection of files/folders using any or all of these methods. In fact, you can use these methods multiple times. Further, you can change the Filter option for the  button each time.
 
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The following sections show details of each method:
 
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Adding files using the 'Add Files' button
 
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1.Press the  button. The following window pops up:
 
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2.Navigate to the required folder and select files. To select multiple files, use CTRL and SHIFT keys while clicking on the files (CTRL key to select non-adjacent files; SHFT key to select adjacent files).
 
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3.Press OK. The selected files are added to ReNamer's Files pane.
 
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4.Repeat steps 1-3 to load files from other folders (as required).
 
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Adding items using the 'Add Folders' button
 
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1.To add all the files belonging to a folder,  press the  button. The following window pops up:
 
  
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2.ReNamer changes its behavior based on the filter settings. Therefore, before adding any folders, first set this behavior, by pressing the  button. The settings are described in Appendix-B.
 
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3.Depending on  your selected options in this window, the Add folders window adds different items to ReNamer's work area. Navigate to the desired folder and press the Add Folders button. 
 
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Adding files using the Drag-and-drop method
 
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Select the files in any application and drag-and-drop into ReNamer's Files pane.
 
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To drag-and-drop, click on your file selection with LMB. Without releasing the LMB, start moving the mouse. Now bring the mouse pointer over the ReNamer's Files pane, and then release the LMB.
 
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If the ReNamer's window is not visible, first drag your selection onto ReNamer's task button in Windows Task toolbar (located at the bottom of your screen). Wait for a couple of seconds without releasing the LMB.  The ReNamer window pops up, and stays above the other applications' windows on your screen. Now you can move your mouse over the ReNamer window and drop your selection in its Files pane.
 
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You can also use the ReNamer's program settings to keep its window above the other windows, so even when you are working in the other applications, the ReNamer window stays on top of the other applications' windows.
 
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Adding files using the copy-and-paste method
 
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Select the files in any application and press CTRL+C to copy them in the clipboard. Now switch to ReNamer and press SHIFT+CTRL+V.
 
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Note that-
 
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1.The keyboard shortcut is NOT the usual CTRL+V.
 
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2.It is not necessary to click inside the Files pane for the paste operation.
 
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Removing files or folders from pane
 
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If you have added more files by mistake, you can remove them easily. Just select them and press the DEL key. (This only removes the files/folders from the ReNamer- It does not delete them from the disk!)
 
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To select the items, you can use the following methods:
 
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Click on the files (press SHIFT first to select adjacent files; and CTRL to select non-adjacent files). Clicking again on an item toggles its selection on/off.
 
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Draw a “lasso” (rectangle) with mouse. All items covered by the rectangles get selected.
 
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Changing the order of the files in the pane
 
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Certain rules (e.g. serialized file names) act on the list of the files from top to bottom order (as opposed to acting on each file independently).  In such cases, each files gets its name based on its position in the list. (For example, the nth file in the list is named “Track-n.mp3”.)
 
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Normally, the files are listed in the order you added them to the pane (the most recently added file goes to the bottom of the list). But you can change the position of the files in the list name them in a certain way.
 
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To change the position of any file, just click on the file and drag it to the new position.
 
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You can select multiple files and drag them to the new position at a time.
 
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Selecting files
 
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When a file is selected, its entire row is highlighted with blue background.
 
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Selected file
 
  
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Unselected file
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{| class="prettytable"
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| <center>'''Step'''</center>
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| <center>'''What to do'''</center>
  
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ReNamer allows you to carry out specific operations on selected files.
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|-
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You can select one or more files by the following methods:
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| <center>'''1'''</center>
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1.Click anywhere in the row except on the check box.
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| Select the files from various folders and add them to the working area.
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To select non-adjacent files, press CTRL and then click on individual rows.
 
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To select files listed in adjacent rows, first click on the row at one end, then keep the SHFT pressed down, and click on the row at the other end.
 
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2.Draw a “lasso” (rectangle) with the mouse in the Files pane. All the rows touched by the rectangle are selected.
 
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If you repeat these actions on an item, they toggle the selection status (selected ←→ unselected).
 
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When only one row is selected, use Up/Down Arrow keys to change the selection to another row.
 
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Marking and Unmarking the files
 
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A file is “marked” by putting a tick in its check box . Conversely, it is “unmarked” by removing the tick .
 
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ReNamer acts only on the marked files. An unmarked file is neither previewed nor renamed.
 
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So unmarking a file is useful to exempt a file from renaming without having to remove it from the Files pane.
 
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To mark/unmark the files-
 
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1.Click on the check box.
 
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2.Select the file and press the Spacebar (on keyboard)
 
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(Repeat of these actions on any item toggles its mark/unmark status.)
 
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Note that the “marked/unmarked” status of a file has no relation with its “selected/unselected” status.
 
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Managing rules in the Rules pane
 
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This section explains how to add rules, remove rules, edit a rule and change the order in which they are applied to files and folders.
 
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Adding rules
 
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1.Rules can be added by using any of the following methods:
 
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Click the  button,
 
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Click inside the Rules area
 
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Press the Ins key when the ReNamer window is active.
 
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2.The Add Rule window pops up:
 
  
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3.Select the desired rule. Its options appears immediately in the Configuration area (at right).
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a. Change default behavior for the '''Add Folders''' button (optional step)
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4.Set the desired parameters (the Rules chapter explains parameters of each rule).
 
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5.Press the  button at the bottom of the window. The rule is added to the stack.
 
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The window stays open, and allows you to add more rules.
 
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6.Repeat steps 1-5 to add more rules. Each new rule is added at the end of the stack.
 
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7.To close the window, press the  button at bottom (or the  button at the top right corner).
 
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Removing rules
 
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To remove an existing rule, select it and press DEL or click on the  button.
 
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Changing the order of the rules
 
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All rules are applied to each file in the order they appear. Even with the same set of rules, the end-result can be very different if the order of the rules is changed.
 
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You can change the order of rules using any of the following methods:
 
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1.Using the  and  buttons (they are grayed out if there are less than two rules in the pane)
 
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2.Drag-and-drop any rule with mouse.
 
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Editing rules
 
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Editing a rule means changing its parameters and options, and then saving the rule.  
 
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You can change the order of rules using any of the following methods:
 
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1.Double-click on it,
 
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2.Right-click on it and select the Edit Rule option
 
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3.Select it and press ENTER. 
 
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A window similar to the Add rules window appears There are only two minor differences:  The button at the bottom is titled Save Rule, and the rules list in the left pane is grayed out (because you are not supposed to select rules in this window.)
 
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Change the parameters and options, and press the Save Rule button.
 
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There are two notable exceptions: The Translit and PascalScript rules are actually collections of individual rules. You have to select an individual Translit rule or Pascal script and edit it. So the above description does not apply to those rules. Click on the hyperlinks above to see how to edit these two rules. 
 
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Deleting a rule
 
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To delete a rule, select it and press the DEL key.
 
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You can select multiple rules and then delete them at a time (press DEL).
 
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Selecting a rule
 
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When a rule is selected, its entire row is highlighted with blue background.
 
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Selected rule
 
  
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Unselected rule
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b. Add individually selected files (“'''Add Files”''') and/or all files in selected folders (“'''Add Folders”''')
  
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Only one rule can be selected at a time.
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c. Drag-n-drop files from Windows Explorer (or any other application) in this area.
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You can select multiple rules and carry out certain actions on all these rules in one stroke.
 
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To select a rule, use any of the following methods:
 
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1.Click anywhere in the row except on the check box.
 
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2.Use the Up/Down Arrow keys to move the selection to another rule.
 
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Marking and Unmarking a rule
 
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A rule is “marked” by putting a tick in its check box. Conversely, it is “unmarked” by removing the tick .
 
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ReNamer uses only the marked rules for the preview and renaming operations.
 
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So unmarking a rule is useful to temporarily disable the rule without having to remove it from the Rules pane.
 
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To mark/unmark the rules-
 
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3.Click on the check box.
 
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4.Select the rule and press the Spacebar (on keyboard)
 
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(Repeat of any action toggles the mark/unmark status.)
 
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The reasons for unmarking a rule are:
 
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1.You want to remove the effect of a rule and see what happens to the files.
 
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2.You have a favorite set of rules that you use often. However, you need to remove a few rules in some cases. A trick is to save the superset of rules (and reload them automatically each time you start ReNamer). Then in each session, unmark some rules.
 
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Previewing the renamed files
 
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ReNamer shows a preview of the files, so that you can decide whether your rules are working as expected. If some files show unexpected results, edit some of the rules  and check again.
 
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Let us see how preview works in the example below. There are two rules in the stack. The first rule strips brackets and its contents. It also replaces , _ and %20 with a space, and fixes multiple spaces in the name.  The second rule capitalizes the first letter of the name and makes all other letters small.
 
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The preview shows that-
 
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In the Files pane, the State column shows whether the renaming will face any problems. In this case, the green arrows  show that the files are 'ready to go!', but in case anything is wrong, those files are marked with .
 
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The New Name column shows a preview of the new names. The first name is unchanged; so it is shown in black. The remaining two names are affected by the rules; so they  are shown in red.
 
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The check boxes in the Rules pane allow you to disable any rule temporarily. (Disable one of the rules and see the effect on the renaming.)
 
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The check boxes in the Files pane allow you to exempt any file/folder from the current renaming. New names are not shown for such unselected files.
 
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Note that ReNamer has many program options for previewing. Its behavior will vary greatly based on those settings. For example, you can set it to refresh the preview when new files and/or rules are added.
 
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If you do not select auto preview mode, you must press the  button to see the preview. This is actually useful if you do not want to miss out the subtle changes that can happen to the file names when you are adding new rules.
 
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Renaming the files
 
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When the  button is pressed, the following things happen:
 
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1.The marked rules are applied to the marked files. Those files are renamed.
 
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2.The New Name column becomes empty (because it shows a proposed new name temporarily; and once the file is renamed, there is no proposed new name left.)
 
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After the renaming is over, ReNamer can do a lot of other things depending on the program settings for renaming. For example, do you want to automatically clear off the Rules and/or the Files pane? Do you want to close the ReNamer window automatically?
 
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When is a file considered “renamed successfully”?
 
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Look at the first file (“Unchanged file.doc”)in the above screenshot. That file is not affected by the current set of rules. Yet, so far as ReNamer is concerned, all the marked rules were applied to it, and so ReNamer considers that this file was successfully renamed.
 
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Each renaming operation can have four different outcomes:
 
  
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Outcome
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|-
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Is it considered as successful renaming?
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| <center>'''2'''</center>
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1
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| Add rules to create a sequence. Delete or edit an existing rule. Change the order of the rules.
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A file that was deselected
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(i.e., was not marked for the current round of renaming)
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a. Allows addition and deletion of rules. Also change the order of any rule in the stack.
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No
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2
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b. Click in this area to add a rule (or to edit an existing rule, or just move it to a new position in the list)
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A file name that was changed when the rules were applied.
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Yes
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|-
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3
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| <center>'''3'''</center>
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A file name that did not change when the rules were applied.
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| Preview the results (check before proceeding with the actual renaming)
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Yes
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4
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a. Set options (e.g. highlight changed names, experiment with your own text, resolve conflicts, etc.)
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A file name that caused error when the rules were applied.
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(e.g. invalid file name, name conflict, etc.)
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b. Click to see preview the new file names in the bottom pane (not required in '''''auto-preview''''' mode)
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No
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The program settings for renaming also decide what ReNamer will do with the files based on their outcome. For example, do you want to clear off the files that were NOT renamed in the current round of renaming?
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|-
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| <center>'''4'''</center>
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| Press this button to rename files and folders.
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|}
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ReNamer is so intuitive that just this much information is enough for most users.
 +
 
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The rest of the chapters provide more details on all aspects of ReNamer. Use them as reference

Revision as of 09:33, 20 June 2009

Basic usage

Using ReNamer is very simple. Just follow the four steps shown below.

[[Image:]]


Step
What to do
1
 Select the files from various folders and add them to the working area.

a. Change default behavior for the Add Folders button (optional step)

b. Add individually selected files (“Add Files”) and/or all files in selected folders (“Add Folders”)

c. Drag-n-drop files from Windows Explorer (or any other application) in this area.

2
 Add rules to create a sequence. Delete or edit an existing rule. Change the order of the rules.

a. Allows addition and deletion of rules. Also change the order of any rule in the stack.

b. Click in this area to add a rule (or to edit an existing rule, or just move it to a new position in the list)

3
 Preview the results (check before proceeding with the actual renaming)

a. Set options (e.g. highlight changed names, experiment with your own text, resolve conflicts, etc.)

b. Click to see preview the new file names in the bottom pane (not required in auto-preview mode)

4
 Press this button to rename files and folders.

ReNamer is so intuitive that just this much information is enough for most users.

The rest of the chapters provide more details on all aspects of ReNamer. Use them as reference

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