Batch rename files with a preview you can trust
Windows can batch rename files on its own, after a fashion: select a group, rename one, and the rest get the same name with (1), (2), (3) after it. You cannot choose the starting number, pad it with zeros, add a date, or strip the camera prefix in the same step. Batch Smart File Renamer covers those jobs.
Its side pane, titled The rules and what they make, holds six rules: Add text, Remove text, Replace text, Change case, Number them and Add a date. Switch on as many as you need. Each file in the list shows its current name and the name it will become, and the preview updates on every keystroke, so you can tune a rule until the names read right.
The new name you see is the one that gets written. The preview and the rename come from the same calculation, and Rename stays unavailable until at least one rule would actually change a name.
How to rename multiple files at once
A typical job, turning DSC_0001.JPG and its neighbors into Rome 2019 001.JPG and onward, takes four steps.
- Click Choose files, or use Add folder to bring in every file directly inside a folder. Files from different folders can share one list.
- Open Number them, type Rome 2019 in New name (optional), and leave Start counting from at 1 with How many digits at 3.
- Check the list. Each row should now read Rome 2019 001, Rome 2019 002 and so on, in list order.
- Press Rename. If you want a second pass with different rules, the list already holds the new names.
Rename files with sequential numbers that sort correctly
Unpadded numbers sort badly: File 1, File 10, File 100, File 2. The cure is padding, and Number them lets you choose between 1 and 8 digits so a folder of 400 scans comes out 001 through 400 and stays in order in any file manager or upload form.
You decide where counting starts, anywhere from 0 to 99,999, which is useful when you are adding a new batch to a set that already ends at 250. Where the number goes puts it at the start or end of the name, and the Separator box holds whatever goes between number and name: a space by default, or a dash, an underscore, or anything else you type.
Add the date to file names, or clean names up
Add a date stamps each name with a date taken from Which date: the file's modified date, its created date, or today's date. Date format offers six layouts, from 2026-10-21 and 20261021, which sort chronologically by name, to 10-21-2026, 21-10-2026, October 21, 2026, and 2026-10-21 14.05 when the time matters. The time uses a dot because Windows does not accept colons in names.
For cleanup, Remove text deletes a fragment wherever it occurs, such as IMG_ or a trailing copy, and Replace text swaps one string for another, both with an Ignore case option. Change case gives lower case, UPPER CASE, Title Case or Sentence case.
The rules always run in a fixed order: text changes first, then case, then numbering and the date. That order is what lets you strip a prefix, retitle a set, number it and date it in a single pass without the case rule touching your numbers.
