Tips & Tricks
On this page I have collected useful information that will help you become a master at using Flash Renamer!
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Batch renaming in all its glory, but sometimes you just need to do it by hand to get the result you want. But Flash Renamer is still your best friend! Mark a file and press F2 to start manual rename. Enter the new name and press Enter. Now Flash Renamer will automatically jump to the next file and let you rename that too!
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If you tend to do the same kind of renaming over and over again, then you should have a look at the following functions to make life a bit easier:
- Presets allow you to save several rename command into one single command!
- Don't forget to store your common Find & Replace commands in the Batch Replace function!
- By using Regular Expressions you can greatly enhance the power of your Find & Replace commands!
<ask> is a special tag that is replaced at runtime by a string that the user gets to enter each time. This way you can create general functions that adapt to the situation. A good example is the included presets called Add prefix to filename. It it simply the Add function that adds <ask> to the beginning of the filename!
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Say that you want to make a list of your images and their dimensions, and for example put it on a webpage or save as a file. Open the folder in Flash Renamer and use the Free Format function to create a suitable combination, e.g.
<NAME> ( <WIDTH> x <HEIGHT> ). Do not press the Rename button. Instead, right click on the file list, go to "Copy to Clipboard" and choose "All Previews". This will generate a list and put it in the Windows Clipboard, which you can then paste into any text editor or word processor!
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If you want to sort you files in a special way, then you might be able to use the preview column to your advantage. For example: Choose the Format function and type
<EXIFDATE> <EXIFTIME>. Now the Exif date will appear in the preview column. Above the preview column is the column header (the place where it says "preview"). Click on this header. The files will sort according to the Exif date!
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As mentioned in the above tip, the preview columns can be used to display all kinds of information. If you right click on the file list you will get a popup menu, and there you can choose to copy the preview to the Windows clipboard. Now you can use this information in any other program you like, or paste it into Notepad and save it as a text file!
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Flash Renamer has good support for Exif tags (metadata information that you find in all photos taken by digital cameras). But since it's not a separate function I though I'd mention it here as a tip so you don't miss it! You will find them in Flash Renamer as format tags.
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You can figure out how long your filenames are by using the Remove function. This can be useful if you have a limit on how long they can be, for example when burning Cd's. Set the function to remove 999 chars at pos NN from The beginning of the filename, where NN is the number of letters you have set as maximum. Make sure that both "process filename" and "process extension" are enabled. Now look at the preview column. Any file being listed there is longer than NN!
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Amazon, Wikipedia and other sites can be a great place to find titles for the tracks on your music albums. If you have all the tracks from an album, but the filenames are bad, simply look up the album on a site and copy the track names to the clipboard. Now start Flash Renamer and paste the names into the filename editor and rename your music!
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Did you know that Flash Renamer has some limited file moving capabilities? Here's how: Use the format function and add the tag
<\>. It can be used several times, and each time it will move the file into a sub-folder. Example: <ARTIST><\> will move each mp3 into a sub-folder named after the artist!
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When you right click on files in Windows Explorer to send them to Flash Renamer, the files arrive in the order that Explorer sends them in. A problem is that Explorer will always send all files in the order shown, except for the first file! The first file will instead be the file that you right clicked on. There is not much Flash Renamer can do about this, but here is a tip on how to avoid this problem: After you have selected files in Windows Explorer, always right click on the first file! This will make sure that the files are processed in the correct order. This is a good habit to learn, since it applies to all programs, not just Flash Renamer!