As part of my need for a meticulous organizational system for my classical and opera .mp3, I also needed a program that would quickly allow me to rename long, complex filenames. I was doing it by hand for a while until I came across the Bulk Rename Utility – a program which continues to save me countless hours renaming files.
The program is free, loads quickly, and has an interface that puts all of the controls at your fingertips. At first the program can be overwhelming because there are a myriad of options and ways you can manipulate your file names. The program has a left side windows-explorer type tree-view, and a right side display of the files in the directory that’s selected in the left panel. Below these two windows sits the configuration options. You can use RegEx patterns, replacements, and case changes. You can remove characters that are “n” places in, or add characters that are “n” places in (or both!). In addition, you can also add numbering to the files and you can easily add prefixes and suffixes.
For a FREE, comprehensive and fully illustrated white paper on how to create MP3 CDs in track order using iTunes, visit ClassicalWeekly.com and look for instructions in the right-column.
One of the best features of the program (in addition to its intended purpose) is the ability for you to preview the changes you are planning to make to your file(s). If you have the file selected and make a change to the name, you’ll see a preview of that change so you can check your work prior to changing all of your file names (though if you make a mistake you can just use the program to correct the names back to what they were).
In summary, Bulk Rename Utility is an integral part of my iTunes workflow and should be considered by anyone who needs to manipulate large numbers of file names.