Flex Renamer - Most Awesome Bulk File / Folder Regular Expression Renamer Ever
Posted January 6, 2007 at 1:55 PM
Flex Renamer uses regular expressions to rename files and folders. This is the best solution that I have ever seen for bulk renaming. And, it uses regular expressions! How cool is that. I am not sure if you can find this application online anymore, I am not even sure where I found it. I think that this application is Freeware so I am posting it here for your benefit.
Here is a small screen shot of how it works. It can recurse, rename, delete, move, copy, alter the date created, alter the date modified. It can upper case, lower case, put in time stamps, put in parts of the date, and so very much more. I am telling you, this application rocks!
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One quick case study of where I have used it is when converting a ColdFusion driven site into a static site (for CD-Rom creation). Once you burn out the site, it's awesome for blazing through the directory structure and replacing .cfm files with .htm files (not to mention removing a bunch of other junk that "site burning" applications put into file names).
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Reader Comments
For renaming cfm to html I would think rename *.cfm *.htm would be pretty quick for windows users :)
Posted by Kevin on Jan 6, 2007 at 7:40 PM
Kevin,
I am Windows and am not familiar with this. Is that a Command Prompt type thing? Where would I find this? Can it handle regular expressions and recursion?
Posted by Ben Nadel on Jan 6, 2007 at 7:45 PM
Ben,
with the command prompt you can do "ren *.cfm *.html" and that will rename all the .cfm files to .html.
That aside, I love being able to rename with regular expressions. The flex tool is cool but I use XYPlorer for all my file browsing/organizing needs. It has supports regex renaming plus a whole lot more. It's not free but it's an excellent replacement of the crappy windows file shell. Check it out: http://www.xyplorer.com/
Posted by Boyan on Jan 6, 2007 at 9:17 PM
LOL - here I was thinking someone had written a file renamer in Flex :-)
Posted by James Holmes on Jan 7, 2007 at 12:30 AM
Boyan,
XYPlorer looks pretty awesome. I downloaded the trial and am gonna give it a go at work. I love the whole bottom preview / info pain and the extended context menu. I can't quite figure out how to get that "favorites" frame to show on the bottom left, but I am working on it.
Thanks for the awesome link!
Posted by Ben Nadel on Jan 7, 2007 at 10:53 AM
Also, as far as the "ren" command, that is ok, but the Flex Renamer gives you a preview of all the files that are going to be updated. That just feels safer. Also, it can move things to the recycling bin. I am sure that "ren" has its place for certain people, but for me, the Flex Renamer interface and functionality cannot be beat.
Posted by Ben Nadel on Jan 7, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Ben,
I don't use "ren" - I was simply explaining the syntax. For XYPlorer, press F8 and that shows/hides the favorites. The option is called "Catalogs" and not "Favorites" in the menu under "Window" - I have no clue what it has two names.
Posted by Boyan on Jan 7, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Hi - FIRSTLY, Superb Renamer!
erm... (There's always an erm eh?) - There's ONE feature that would make it DEFINITELY live up the name above, in conjunction with XBOX filename usage?
...and that's that when renaming, etc... an optional checkbox to ONLY rename matching files if the current filename lenght is LONGER than 38.3 chars - i.e. 38 chars, a full stop, and a 3 char extension? - Even better, and useful to everyone, would be a specified amount?...
i.e. I'd LOVE to be able to use your fantastic program with a condition that it leaves alone/does not rename any files that are already under the filename character size limit?
THAT would make this the "Most Awesome Bulk File / Folder Regular Expression Renamer Ever" for me at least!!! ; )
Please, please include this feature, as I haven't found ONE renaming application that allows this, in my travels so far, and it's driving me NUTS! - I have lots of files to rename, and the other logic in your program does EVERYTHING else that I need to catch to make them shorter, remove illegal chars, etc...
Thanks and best regards, and please, if I've missed the obvious (i.e. it already somehow does this), then please feel free to flame me!
Best regards,
Den.
Posted by Denis Evans on Jan 18, 2007 at 6:42 PM
PS - Just found out from the previous posts (I'd jumped right into the forum from a link by mistake!) - that the author is MIA... : (
Ah well, if anyone else is thinking of bettering this great tool, then please keep my plea in mind! ; )
Cheers,
Den.
Posted by Denis Evans on Jan 18, 2007 at 6:45 PM
Ha ha, I WISH I could make something this cool :)
Posted by Ben Nadel on Jan 18, 2007 at 11:14 PM
Awesome tool!
By the way, the official site for Flexible Renamer is http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA014830/FlexRena/ . Looks like version 8 beta just came out a few days ago.
Posted by Steve on Nov 18, 2007 at 10:00 PM
@Steve,
Awesome :) I love this tool.
Posted by Ben Nadel on Nov 19, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Brilliant! How is it such an amazing tool has been languishing in obscurity for years? This thing needs some promotion...
Thanks for bringing it to light ;)
Posted by acatalept on Mar 18, 2008 at 12:24 PM
@Acatalept,
Yeah, this tool is awesome. The renaming feature is awesome; but, equally as badass is the ability to delete files based on patterns (such as deleting all files that end in .SVN).
Posted by Ben Nadel on Mar 18, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Flexible Renamer v8.0 was release on 3/9/2008
Go here ==> http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA014830/FlexRena/
There are lots of enhancements. I like this software.
Posted by Hiro Katsumi on Apr 5, 2008 at 1:25 PM
@Hiro,
Just installed the new version on my machine... I also love this software.
Posted by Ben Nadel on Aug 8, 2008 at 7:46 PM
