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PicnamView - a free viewer program

Renaming Images:  Simple Rename  -  The Bulk Rename Function  -  Bulk Rename Pattern Reference  -  Advanced Bulk Rename

The Bulk Rename Function

The Bulk Rename function allows you to rename many pictures in one operation.

You can enter a simple name that is applied to all pictures with a sequence number added automatically, or you can use a pattern to generate names.

You can also use the Bulk Rename function to add leading zeros to numbers in brackets. This is designed for the case where you have a program that adds sequence numbers to filenames automatically eg. Picture (2) becomes Picture (02). If the numbers do not have leading zeros, many programs will list them out of order - Picture (10) will appear before Picture (2).

Simple Bulk Rename

1) On the main Picnam window, check the files to be renamed.
To check all the files, select Checked->Check All from the menu.
To check individual files, use the Space Bar when moving through the list with the arrows or select Checked->Toggle File from the menu.

2) Select Checked->Bulk Rename... from the menu to open the Bulk Rename dialog.



3) To give all the files the same name, enter the name in the Name/Pattern field and click OK. The files will be renamed and sequence numbers automatically added to avoid duplicate names.

Bulk Rename with Simple Patterns

You can create simple patterns by inserting <name>, <nnn>, <date> or <auto> into the new name.

<name> inserts the old name (without the extension) into the new name

<nnn> inserts an automatically incrementing number into the new name. The number of "n"s indicates how many digits to use, so <n> starts at 1, <nnnn> starts at <0001>

<date> inserts the date that the picture was taken, if it is present in the EXIF information in the file. Digital cameras normally record this information automatically. The default date format is "2005-12-31 17.59.01" which gives dates that sort correctly. Patterns can be used to modify the format of the date that is generated.
Note: Using a date pattern means that every image must be read to get the date information. This can take some time if you have many images so renaming may take longer than normal.

<auto> inserts an automatically incrementing number into the new name that is remembered between uses, so that it always starts from the next number. If you numbered files from 1 to 200 last time, the next generated number will be 201. By default the numbers are generated with 6 digits. The starting number and number of digits can be changed, see the reference section below for details. The extension is automatically added to the generated name.

See the Bulk Rename Pattern Reference to find out more about creating patterns.

Examples

Starting with files named:
a.jpg
b.jpg
c.jpg

Pattern
 New names
<name><nnnn> a0001.jpg
b0002.jpg
c0003.jpg
Pic<name>
 Pica.jpg
Picb.jpg
Picc.jpg
Pic<nn>
 Pic01.jpg
Pic02.jpg
Pic03.jpg
Pic<auto>
(assuming last time you used automatic numbering the last number generated was 234)
 Pic000235
Pic000236
Pic000237

Adding Leading Zeros

Some programs avoid creating duplicate names by appending a number in brackets to the filename. Usually the numbers are simply 1, 2...9, 10, 11 etc. This numbering is easy for people to understand, but is more difficult for computers. Often computer programs do a simple sort of the filenames. This means that files 10, 11, etc. end up before file 2 and the list is out of order.
The "Add leading zeros" option fixes this by making 1 into 01, 2 into 02 and so on. 0 comes before the other numbers so the list sorts into order.

To add leading zeros:
1)  Check the files to be renamed and open the Bulk Rename dialog as above. It doesn't matter if you check files without numbers, they will not be renamed.
2) Select the Add leading zeros... option
3) Change the Minimum number of digits if necessary. Picnam makes a guess of the number of digits required based on the number of files that have been checked. There are times you might want to change it. for example, if you have 200 files, but none have numbers over 99 you might want to change it from 3 to 2.
4) Click OK to perform the rename.

Tip: Removing leading zeros

When Picnam automatically adds a number to a generated filename, it adds leading zeros to avoid this problem. If you prefer names without the leading zeros,  you can use this function to remove them. Simply follow the process to add leading zeros, and enter 1 as the minimum number of digits. Leading zeros will be removed.