How to rename files - all of them at once

Mark Krutke · Post by **Mark Krutke** » 11 Mar 2001 5:23 pm

I have some pictures that I took with my digital camera that I stored in my A drive, and I know how to rename a single file, but wanted to know how to put the same title on all the files at once.

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 11 Mar 2001 8:25 pm

To rename multiple files in one shot, you'll need to use the DOS command prompt. You can't rename all the files to be exactly the same name, and if you rename the extension you won't be able to open them because you probably won't have a file association with that extension.

I'll assume your files are similar to what my Sony Mavica names it's files, such as MVC-01F.JPG, MVC-02F.JPG, etc. To be safe, do DIR A:MVC-*.JPG to be sure you're seeing all the files you want to rename. (The * is a wild card for any characters.) To rename them all to "Steel Show-01F.JPG", "Steel Show-02F.JPG", etc., do REN A:MVC-*.JPG "A:Steel Show-*.JPG" The double quotes are necessary if you want a space in the file name, otherwise you can leave them out of the REN command.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 Mar 2001 3:46 am

To add to what Jim has said. You can't have all the files the exact same name. Each one within a folder (directory) has to have a unique name, such as the Steel Show 01, Steel Show 02, etc., but they cannot all be "Steel Show".

Why not make a folder named "Steel Show" and move all the pictures to that folder and then number each picture "01", "02", etc.
Even if it's the only folder on the diskette it will still give you a name for all the pictures.

Mark Krutke · Post by **Mark Krutke** » 12 Mar 2001 4:15 pm

Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate this.