Copyright: Copyright © 1998  by  Kent H.


Rname-it
Help Contents for Rname-it v3.11

1.  License & Usage Agreement

2.  Introduction

3.  How to work with Basic File Renaming

4.  How to work with Advance File Renaming

5.  Other Features of Rname-it

6.  What's new?

7.  Technical Support & other notes


License
The software is subject to the terms and conditions detailed in the following usage and license agreement.

1.  License & Usage:

This is a FREEWARE.  You are granted the right to use this Software product free of charge.  You may not lease, rent, sell, or make any profit out of any portion of the Software.  You are free to copy and/or distribute this software to others at your will provided that you must distribute the Software in its ENTIRE package, which should only include the original archives.  The Software may not be circulated in any incomplete or modified form, which means you may not alter, delete, or add any files in the distribution package.  Reverse engineer, Decompile, Disassemble, Modify, Translate, make any attempt to discover the source code of the Software, or create derivative works from the Software are prohibited!

2.  Disclaimer of Warranty:

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NONINFRINGEMENT. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED GRATUITOUSLY AND, ACCORDINGLY, THE AUTHOR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE UNDER ANY THEORY OR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY YOU OR ANY USER OF THE SOFTWARE.

IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF INFORMATION, DAMAGE TO COMPUTER OR MONITOR, ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR SIMILAR DAMAGES, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR ITS DOCUMENTATION EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED AND WARNED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

This document is an inherent part of this agreement.  Your use of the software will constitute that you comply with the entire Agreement.  If you cannot agree with these rules, please do not use this product.

The use of the Software is at Licensee's sole risk!


Basic Renaming
Minimum Requirements:

Before you move on, make sure you have the following...

Operating System:  Win95/98/NT

Dynamic Linked Libraries:

MFC42.DLL - (newer versions will work)

-- file version "4.21.7303"

-- product version "5.0.000"

-- language "English (United States)"

MSVCRT.DLL - (newer versions will work)

-- file version "5.00.7303"

-- product version "5.00.7303"

-- language "English (United States)"

COMCTL32.DLL - (your choice; newer versions will work)

-- file version "4.70"  (no smooth scroll)

-- file version "4.72.2106.4"  (smooth scroll)

(this file must be placed in your "\Windows\System\" directory, and you must reboot your system inorder for it to take affect)

Notes:

These library files are available from my freeware site if you need them.  To install these files, you have two options.  One way is to place them in the directory where Rname-it.exe is located.  Another way is to place them into the "\Widnows\System\" directory.

If you choose to install the DLLs into the system directory.  Then there will be a few more works involved.  Since the DLLs will be read only when Windows is booted up.  You'll have to exit to DOS, and exchange the files from there.  Then reboot the system for the changes to take affect.

Also, you have the options to choose between using smooth scroll or no smooth scroll for the directory tree explorer.  That will depend on the COMCTL32.DLL file you have installed.  The newer versions will all be using smooth scroll, but if you would like the version without smooth scroll, you can still get it.

Other DLLs you must already have...

  ADVAPI32.DLL, GDI32.DLL, USER32.DLL, KERNEL32.DLL

Introduction to Rname-it...

(If you have used Rname-it before, go to the "What's new" section to read about the new features added)

Welcome to Rname-it!  For those of you who still doesn't have clue of what this program does, well, hopefully this introduction will make things clear.

Rname-it is probably the most powerful, yet simple and portable, BATCH renaming utility ever built.  The main purpose is to allow the user to batch (en masse) rename a large quantity of files with only a few clicks.  For instance, you can easily group a set of files by renaming them to: pic_01.jpg, pic_02.jpg, pic_03.jpg, etc... With the explorer-like directory view, you can quickly access all your directories and files.  And you're only a few clicks away from managing over millions of filenames.  This is a must for Graphic/Picture collectors.

     There really isn't much to learn about Rname-it.  The basic idea is to first select the files that you wanted to rename, then modify the properties of how the new filenames should look.  Finally you rename all of them with a click of a button.  This sounds kind of simple, but you'll have to get use to the properties that are available in order to get the most out of Rname-it.  Version 3.x has changed drastically from versions 2.x and earlier.  If you are new to Rname-it, you might want to read all of this help file before using it.

 By default, the start up will display the current drive and all its subdirectories, located at the very left of the main program window.  To open up more subdirectories, double click on the parent directory.  When ever you jump to a new subdirectory, the file list is automatically updated.  The file list will always show files that are in the current/selected subdirectory.  To select files from the file list, just click/highlight the filename and/or drag your mouse to make multiple selections.

Keep this in mind:

A filename consist of a prefix and an extension, which it looks similar to - [Prefix].[Extension], which Rname-it treats them separately.  The Prefix is considered to be all characters to the left of the last dot '.' within the filename.  And the extension is the remaining part of the filename, which is to the right of the last dot '.'.

Win95 supports long file name up to 256 characters.  Make sure your new filename, Prefix + Extension, is within the 256 characters limit (including the dot '.').

The Directory Tree List and the Filename List both are quite memory demanding.  Slowness will occur when the list becomes large.  The amount of filenames that the File Listing can hold a maximum of 32,767 filenames.  However, the numerical counter can count up to about 2^64 values.

Also, Rname-it doesn't use the registry.  So it won't messes up any of your user or system registry settings.  All settings goes to the "rname-it.ini" file only when the Save Settings is used.

Lets move on to the next step...


Basic Rename
How to work with Basic Renaming...

The procedures to do some simple renaming are actually quite easy.  And the best way to go about it is to have a visual sample of a typical layout.  Below is a screen capture of "Basic File Renaming" routines.  You will undoubtedly spend most of your renaming task in this area, because although it only offers simple renaming options, it is actually quite powerful and can put together a lot of variations in filenames.

The above example shows how to append a string to the beginning of a file's prefix and replacing the file's extension with a new string and numeric count that increments by 1.

1.)  First the box "Make Changes to Prefix" is checked to let Rname-it knows that you want to make changes to the file's prefix.  Like wise to the Extension checkbox.

2.)  Under the "New Prefix:" text field, you enter the new string for the prefix.  This string can then be applied to the file's prefix in three different ways. First is you can replace the entire file's prefix with it, place it before the file's original prefix, or place it after the file's original prefix.  In the above example, placing it "before" was chosen.

The same idea also applies to the Extension properties.  And in the example above, the file's original extension is totally replaced by the new string.

3.)  If you move down a little bit more, you'll noticed an area for creating a counter.  This counter can be numerical or alphabetical, which is for appending to the file's prefix or to the extension.  In the example above, the counter, in numeric form, was chosen to be added to the extension.

Note that you cannot add a counter simultaneously to the prefix and the extension at the same time.

To ease you in working with the renaming properties, there is a "Real Time Preview" screen that shows you an up-to-date changes that you have put together.  The Real Time filename preview is only available to "Basic Renaming" routine and not to "Advance Renaming" routine because of the relative complexity of the advance renaming features.

After you think you have the properties all set, you may click on the [Full Preview] button to view the final products.  This is only a preview, therefore nothing will be changed at this point.  This is a chance for you to spot if the changes you've requested are EXACTLY what you wanted.  If you spot some mistakes, simply go back and redo/fix-up the properties and try again until you get it right.

Click here to read about [Full Preview].

If all goes well, just click on the button [ Rename it! ] to begin the renaming operation.  This button is located at the very bottom of the main program window.

Below is an example of how to convert files' extension to lower case...

You will noticed that the "Make changes to Prefix" box is unchecked, because you only want to work with the extension of the filename.  Second thing is leave the "New Ext:" field empty, because you don't want to add anything to the file extension.  Finally click on the [Ext. - lower] button, which means you want to convert all files' extension to lower case.

About alphabetical counters...

In decimal, there are 10 possible values in a single position (0-9), so you we refer to it as a base 10 representation.  In alphabets, there are 26 possible values in a single position (A-Z), so it is base 26.  In base 10, you can represent 100 values in two digits ranging from numbers 0 to 99.  In base 26, you can represent 676 values in two digits ranging from symbols A to ZZ.  As you can see, you can represent a lot more values in base 26 than in base 10 since there are more symbols.  And the counter used in Rname-it is 4 bytes (signed integer), which can only represents up to about 2.147 billion positive values.  That means the width of the starting alphabetical value needs to be limited to a width of 6 digits before the counter overflows.  So you will notice that the number of symbols you can enter for the starting counter is limited to only 6 characters in length whereas you can enter up to 9 digits when in decimal form.

Also like all other numerical representation, there is a 0 value in base 26 and that is the letter A.  Similar to decimal count, you can have leading A's for padding much like leading 0's.  Therefore the value 'aaaaa' in base 26 is the same as 'aaaa' and 'aa' and 'a' in base 26, which all is just the same as the value 0 in decimal (base 10).  So 'aaab' is equivalent to 'aab', ' ab' and also 'b'.

When using alphabetical count, you can not have a mix case.  The count can either be in all upper or all lower case.  For example, if 'pic_" is the prefix and 'aAcD' is the alphabetical count, then "pic_aAcD.jpg" will not happen.  It can only be "pic_aacd.jpg" or "pic_AACD.jpg".  Whether the padding is upper or lower case depends on the first character you've entered for the starting value.  When in doubt, just check the "Real Time Preview" and also the "Full Preview" for the results.

Best of all, you can use Rname-it as a base converter from base 10 to base 26 and back.  Yes, if you enter the number 1 at the counter and then check on the "Alphabetical Count" check box, Rname-it will convert that decimal 1 into 'b' in base 26.  Remember that 'a' is equal to 0, so 'b' is equal to 1.  Same thing, if you have 123 in decimal, it'll be converted into 'et' in base 26.  This can help you in deciding the initial value.

Pretty simple so far?

Lets see some advance renaming features...

Technical Support & other notes...


Advance Rename
How to work with Advance Renaming...

Before you read on, keep in mind that a filename is just a string of characters.  And the advance properties let you treat characters of a string in two ways: by string search or by position.  That is if you want to replace the string "cmp" within a filename.  You can tell Rname-it to specifically search for the string "cmp" or by a physical location say from character position 5 to 7 within the filename.

Advance properties contains two ways to modify a filename, the "Insert" and "Replace".   So what happen to "delete" and "truncate"?  Well, they can actually be done by either "insert" or "replace", so "delete" and "truncate" are redundant.

Lets begin by a simplest example of insertion...

This is how you analyze the above example:

Insert the string "extra" to the 4th character position of the prefix.

So a file that looks like:  newstuffs.dxd

Will become:  newextrastuffs.dxd

Ok, you might wonder shouldn't it be the 3rd position instead of the 4th? Well, nope!  Because the first character of the filename is at position 0.  Therefore the last character of the filename would be 255 (max for Win95), not 256.

Another way to look at it is that the string will be placed right after the 3rd position.  So that the character originally located at the 4th position is moved up.

Also note that I've specified only the prefix is to be changed.  No changes will be done to the extension.

Now lets move on to discuss the string search method, which applies to both "Insert" and "Replace"...

The above example shows how to replace a string with a different one.  This is pretty straight forward, and can be analyze in the following way:

Replace the string "stu" with string "vCp" in only the prefix.

So a file that looks like:  newstuffs.dxd

Will become:  newvCpffs.dxd

Notice that you can also apply the "Case Sensitive Search" and "Search String Backward" properties.  Searching backward allows you to only make changes to the last occurrence of the specify string in the filename.

Last but not least, it's time to talk about replacing boundary characters...

1.  Fixed boundary condition...

When 2 of the position fields are filled in, Rname-it treats it as a fixed boundary position.  The way you read it is as follow:

Replace characters from 3rd position to the 6th position with string "oXc".

So a file that looks like:  newstuffs.dxd

Will become:  neoXcffs.dxd

Again, 0 is the first character, therefore '2' means the 3rd character of the filename.  Remember, if you have trouble with 0 being the first then treat it as inserting after that character position.

Note that this is call a fixed boundary, because the replacement string is placed at the same part in every filename.  Also if the specified boundary (usually the "last" field) is larger than the length of the filename, then the string will simply be appended to the end of the filename.

2.  Relative boundary condition...

     Example 1:

     Example 2:

There is a problem with the fixed boundary condition, that is since not every files are of the same length, how is it possible to say replace the last few characters of all the names?  This is when the relative boundary option comes in.

When you leave either one of the field empty, then Rname-it treats the position as a relative position rather than fixed.  So instead of reading "replace from position # to position # with string...", it is interpreted as "replace First # of characters with string..."  or  "replace Last # of characters with string...".

So example 1 is interpret as:  replace the first 2 characters of the filename with string "OxC".

And in example 2:  replace the last 3 characters of the filename with string "OxC".

If there are two files named:

   newstuffs.dxd

   softw.dxd

Following example 2, also with the "Apply to Prefix only" attribute, the results will be:

   newstuOxC.dxd

   soOxC.dxd

More dynamic string search capabilities...

This next feature is new to version 3.11.  The string search now supports wildcards declaration!  This applies to both Insert and Replace.  When you specified a string to search for in a filename, enter the asterisk, *, character to indicate anything/everything. For example, say you have the following filenames...

  new(stuffs).txt

  old(things).txt

Now you want to remove everything within the parentheses ( ).

Then go to Replace, and for the search string you would enter: (*)

Assume that you want to replace it with an empty string, the two files will be renamed to...

  new.txt

  old.txt

As you can see the usage is pretty straight forward.

Well, that's about it for the Advance features.  Remember that when in doubt, just use the "Full Preview" feature to check the final results.

Click here to read about [Full Preview].

Lets read about other features...

Technical Support & other notes...


Other Features
Other Features of Rname-it

File Filtering & Sorting...

     The default file listing will show all files, the synonym is the *.* wild cards.  That means if you want to view only jpeg or gif files, you must apply the right filtering attributes.  "Search Mask" allows you to change the default setting *.* to the wild cards of your choice such as *.jpg  or *.gi*  or whatever.

To protect sensitive files such as the ones marked with <ReadOnly>, <Hidden>, or <System>, simply apply the appropriate File Filter.  The default is "Show ALL files".

The filter "view normal only" will only show Normal and/or Archive bit set files, this option will filter out all readOnLY, hiDDen, and SyStem files.  Remember: renaming can be applied to any attributed files!  So please filter out files that you do not want to be changed accidentally.

There are a total of eight different sorting options.  Many of these options are pretty much self explanatory.  The one that might confuse you is the one marked with "Num# Extension" (same concept as Numerical Prefix)

"Num# Extension" - Sort file's extension by value.  (This was suggested by a graphic designer in the start of version 2.x).  It might be the only sorting method that you've ever seen in any software.  Say you have the following files: Prefix.2, Prefix.3, ..., Prefix.10,... Prefix.27.  In any PC, the order of these filenames would look like the following (in increasing order):

   Prefix.10

   Prefix.2

   Prefix.27

   Prefix.3

As you can see if your extensions are numbered in such a way, your files would be shown out of order.  That because, PC machines compare filenames by reading the name from left to right in one pass.  When comparing x.10 to x.2, it is actually comparing 1 to 2.  Therefore causing them to get out of order.  "Num# Extension" will solve this problem.  This sorting option can distinguish x.10 from x.1.  It knows that x.10 is greater than x.2.  This option will cause the filenames to display in such order:

   Prefix.2

   Prefix.3

   Prefix.10

   Prefix.27

Note: if your directory contains filenames of mix variety of extensions (includes numerical),  "Num# Extension" will cause the filenames with numerical extension to group together at the top of the file list box, and the rest of the filenames will be placed random in a group at the bottom of the list.  This way you can concentrate working on the ones with the numbered extension.  Filenames can also have alphabets in front of the numerical extension like so... prefix.a1, prefix.ab2, prefix.cdef10.  "Num# Extension" option will ignore anything in front of the numeric value; it'll only look at the values within the extensions.  Note that the same idea applies to "Numerical Prefix".

Selecting Files...

     There are 3 different ways to select files in 2 methods.  The two selection method are [Single/Multiple] and [Extended].  These two buttons are found right on top of the file list box.

     [Single/Multiple] is the most commonly used.  It allows you to select files randomly and/or drag select blocks of files.

     [Extended] is used when you want to select huge blocks of files.  This selection method always works in pair; starting mark & ending mark.  Say you want to select a block of 500 files, you would begin the selection by clicking on the first filename (Start mark).  Now, from the vertical scroll bar, scroll the file list all the way to the end (or up to where ever desire) and click on the last filename (End mark).  You should now notice that all the files between the first file (start) and the last file (end) are selected.  note: the normal <shift> key short-cut selection method is not available; it's been replaced by the "Extended" method.

Other options, program "Settings"...

The settings options can be found by clicking on the [Options] button located at the bottom of the main program window.  These are just a few more miscellaneous options to enhance the program.

The option "Auto select all files in directory" was suggested by a few users, so I've decided to include it in Rname-it.  When this is checked, all files on the file list will be selected by default.  That is when ever you entered or switched to a directory, or when the file list is updated, all the files will automatically be selected.

The file list is automatically updated every time after a renaming operation.  And when the list is large it'll take quite some time for refresh the file list.  So if you do not want the file list to be updated after a renaming operation, then check the "Do not auto refresh directory..." check box.

You can also delete multiple files by selecting the desire files at the list box. Then hit the "Delete" key on the keyboard.  You can control whether Rname-it should warn you or not in the settings dialog box.

Note:  Rname-it cannot delete ReadOnly attributed files.

What's new in version 3.11?

Technical Support & other notes...


Full Preview
About Full Preview...

This is probably the most useful tool you'll want to use in every renaming operation.  The "Full Preview" file list box shows you exactly what the selected files look like after being renamed according to your specified rename properties.  It allows you to validate the correctness of the renamed files. And there are two other filename validating utilities that came along with it.

"Check for Duplicates" - scan the whole list for duplicated filenames.

"Find Invalid Characters" - scan all the filenames for invalid (Win95) filename characters.  It also makes sure each filename is no longer than 256 characters.

The Destination path shows you where the files will go to after renamed.  This should be the same as the current directory that you've selected from the main program window unless you specified a different new/destination path from in the program's settings.


Technical Support
Technical Support & other notes...

Ok, this is just a small update from the previous released version.  And there are many changes, since I've received quite a few suggestions.  Anyway, if you encounter any problem or difficulties, please feel free to E-mail me or ICQ me.  Any suggestions and comments are welcome as well.  I will do my best to respond to your E-mails.  I check my e-mail at least 2 to 3 times a day (under ideal circumstances).  Anyway, be sure to look for updates from my freeware sites and other shareware distribution archives.

Thank you for your support!

E-mail:

turbopascal@hotmail.com (Primary, send everything to this E-mail)

(do not send to the below 2 E-mail addresses unless it is necessary)

kent@angelfire.com

recursive@bigfoot.com (if all else failed)

Homepage:

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/kent/  -- the gateway to my internet empire

If you have problem accessing my homepage then try my other sites...

http://trailerpark.com/phase1/next/fileutil.html  -- all my programs (freeware) are here

http://nt3.nettaxi.com/citizens/lister/

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/7532/  -- the shareware page (internet tools)

ICQ status page:

http://wwp.mirabilis.com/8266051/

http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/online/212/

(Note:  I check my E-mail more often than I do with ICQ)

   :-)

Hey, if you have time, visit my school's homepages.

http://www.ucdavis.edu/  -- U.C. Davis (Go Aggies!!!)

http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/  -- Department of Computer Science

http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/  -- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering


What's new
What's new in version 3.11?

1.  Large (64-bit) integer computation allows the counter to go above and beyond the conventional 4 billion values!  As time advances, you'll accumulate more and more files, and soon you'll be running out of numbers for padding to the filenames.  That's why larger integer is necessary to accommodate the increasing number of files.  You can now have a numerical values padded to the filename up to 20 digits long.  You don't have to worry about running out of numbers to use.  Just to give you a visual idea of how large a 64-bit integer is, lets compare it to the conventional 32-bit integer found in most applications.

The largest value of a 32-bit integer is 4,294,967,295.  And the largest 64-bit integer value is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615.  Now say you want to pad a counter to every filename and have the counter starts at 0, then add/increment 1 for every file.  And say your hard disk access is really really fast, which can rename up to 1000 files per 1 second, regardness of the speed of the CPU.  Also say that the rename will go on infinite without stopping until the end of counter is reached.  (Assuming 365 days/year) With the conventional 32-bit integer, it will take only about 50 days for the counter to reach its maximum value (4.2 billion), then overflows occur!  But with the large (64-bit) integer, it will require about 584,942,417 years for the counter to reach its maximum value (assuming that your computer will last this long)!

Note that since the large integer can be converted into a base26 alphabetical value, the maximum value corresponding to it is HLHXCZMXSYUMQP, total of 15 characters in length.

2.  The directory tree explorer has been updated to show '+' and '-' boxes next to unvisited subdirectories.  (suggested)

3.  Added numerical value sort on the file's prefix.  (suggested)

4.  Allows renaming to continue even on encountering an error.  (suggested)

5.  User can now have the file time incremented.  (suggested)

6.  Wildcards string search added under advance renaming.

What's new in version 3.10?

1.  One of the new features is a direct access to any filename and its properties.  This is done by double clicking on any file shown in the list box.  A dialog box will pop up showing the file's name, the path, its attributes, last modified date & time, last accessed date & time, and first created date & time.  You have the option to change any of them.  Clicking on the [Get Current Date/Time] allows you to replcae each of the 3 date & time with the current system time.  Note that for Win95, the last accessed time are always zero.

And once you're done, just click on the [Rename / Apply Changes] button to make the changes.  Hitting the [Cancel] button will of course discard all of the changes and the file will not be modified.

2.  Modifying the attribute, time and date can also be done "en masse", by making the desire changes in the settings dialog box (click on the [Options] button) before you perform renaming operation. They are located under "Renaming options..." in the settings.  It is essentially an extension to the main program.

The first item under this group is the file new/destination path.  It allows you to select the path of where you want the renamed files to go.  You can use this to move files to a different drive/directory with or without changing the file's properties.

(Note that if your destination path is located under the same drive as the files, then it is simply renamed.  If however you selected a different drive, say from C: to A:, then the renamed files will be copied to the new drive & location.  And the speed of the renaming operation will depend on whether the files are being copied or renamed.  Copying files is always slower than rename!  Also, if you leave this path empty (default setting), the renamed files will only go to its original directory, which is the one you've selected at the directory list.)

The items with modifying the attributes and file's date/time should be pretty obvious in its usage.  Graying the attributes means keeping each file's original value for that certain attribute.  Also, the minimum year allow is 1980.  The order of the date is in the Month/Date/Year, and similarly the time is in Hour:Minute:Second.  Eventhough you cannot increment the date, the time increments, however, will cause the day to change.

To apply the changes you've made, just click on the "Rename it" button in the main program window.  These changes can occur concurrently while having the file renamed.

3.  The file list box is now vertically resizable as you change the height of the program window.  Some people have suggested this, so I've finally decided to put this feature into the program.  Don't want to let the people with high resolution screen feel left out.  The screen size is saved to the ini file, every time you choose to save the settings.

4.  ToolTips has been added to help remind you of the functions of each of the renaming options.  It can be disable from the settings.

5.  Some minor bugs have been fixed!

Technical Support & other notes...