Advanced Renamer Commercial

License
By using or installing any product bundled with this license, you agree to this license agreement.
If you do not want to agree to this license or if you don't understand it, you should stop using
and/or uninstall this software at once.

Personal use
You may use this software for personal home use free of charge. To support the project, you can
choose to buy a license for personal use.

Commercial use
A license must be obtained to use this software for commercial use. The license can be obtained
from the Advanced Renamer website and will cover lifetime use for one person. It is allowed to
try out the software for a limited time before a license is required.

Any organization that is considered to be a business, government entity, or non-profit

organization, is considered commercial in regards to this license agreement.
For automation purposes on multiple servers one license has to be obtained for each individual
server.
Click here to purchase a commercial license.

Restrictions
You may NOT...
... use this software if you do not agree to this license agreement.
... remove this license from the software
... remove any other files from the software
... repackage the software in a different installer.
... modify, decompile, or disassemble the software.
... use this product for illegal use.
... sell this product without prior written permission with the purpose of gaining profit. It is
allowed to sell this product if the fee is only used for administration, shipping or other expenses
directly related to selling the software. It is also allowed to sell this product if it is a part of a
larger compilation of different software.

Exceptions to this license

A per-user license agreement can be made to give certain users special rights. The author of the
product decides how this is done and who will get it.

Warranty
You use this software at your own risk. The developers of this product take no responsibility for

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any damage of any kind. The author of the software can change this license agreement at any
time without prior notice.

Privacy
Privacy terms can be found at https://www.advancedrenamer.com/user_guide/privacy. By
agreeing to these license terms, you also agree to the privacy terms.

Orders
Order process is conducted by the online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of
Record for all orders. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns.

Privacy
This document describes how user data is collected and used. The goal is to give easy to read
information about how data is used and how to either opt-in or opt-out.

Website
To post messages in the forum a user must create a user account. To create an account a user
must enter a valid name and email address. All values entered during user account creation,
except for email address and password, will be publicly available. To be deleted from this user
register, write to the email address listed under Support.
Any values supplied for user account creation, will not be used for marketing purposes and will
not be made available to any third party.

Advanced Renamer software

Data will be sent to the Advanced Renamer online services during the use of the following
features:
- Software updates check: Will send information about software version, license key, and
operating system including version number.
- License activation: Will send information about software version, license key, and operating
system including version number.
- Geo related functionality: Will send GPS coordinates to the online services. Geo data can be
used for tagging JPEG images with city or country.
- TV Show import: Will retrieve TV show information from third party database for the search
term used. (Only applies to versions before 3.89)
To opt-out of specific data sharing functionality, please disable or stop using the functionality in
the software.
None of these data will be shared with any third party or used for marketing purposes.
Any of the above data may be stored and later used for statistical purposes.

Purchase
The reseller Paddle.com will handle data collection during purchase. They may collect name,
email, and payment data during checkout. The data is collected for the purpose of purchase,
payment, and license key delivery and recovery. Name, email, and license key will be shared

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between Advanced Renamer online services and Paddle.com.
Data supplied during checkout will not be used for marketing purposes.

Change of privacy terms

These privacy terms can be changed without notice when new versions of the software are
released.

This document was updated 2023-11-16.

Getting started
Here are some easy steps on how to get started renaming files in Advanced Renamer.

Add files

1. First you need to add some files to the list. Click the Add menu item above the file list.
2. In the drop down list pick Files and a dialog for opening files appear.
3. Select the files you would like to rename and click Open.

Tip: You can also drag and drop files or folders from Windows Explorer to Advanced Renamer.

Setup renaming methods.

1. Now you need to setup how the files should be renamed. This is done in the left part of
the program where it says Renaming method list.
2. Click the button Add method and select a method in the appearing window. We will be
using New name method in this example. With the New Name method you can construct
a completely new filename based on known information of each individual file.
3. In the box called New Name you can write the new name of the file. Type in
"MyFile_<Inc Nr:1>.<Ext>" (without the quotes).
4. If you look in the column called New Filename you can see the new filename each file
will have. As you see <Inc Nr:1> will be replaced with a incrementing number starting
from 1 and <Ext> will be replaced with the file extension.

Start renaming.

1. First verify the new names in the column New Filename. If the column is not visible you
can add it by clicking the Customize columns menu button.
2. Click the button Start Batch in the top of the window.
3. In the new window click Rename.
4. Now you will see a progress bar progressing as the files are renamed.
5. When it completes you are done and can click OK.

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You can also read these examples of how you can setup Advanced Renamer in various scenarios:

 Example 1 - Pictures
 Example 2 - Downloaded files

Examples
The software can be very advanced and some tasks might be difficult to figure out how to do.
Below you will find common examples that might help you out.

Pictures
Downloaded files
Scripting

Downloaded files

Case: I have downloaded a bunch of files from the internet, but all the spaces are _ and all the
files ends with an unwanted suffix. The file name could be something like
the_x_tv_show_cooltvstation.avi.

We need to use three methods to do the following:

1. Remove cooltvstation from the files.

2. Replace underscores with spaces.
3. Make the first letter in every word upper case.

Do the following:

1. Add the files to the list.

2. If there are methods in the method list click the Clear Methods toolbar button.
3. Click Add Method.
4. Select Replace Method and click OK.
5. In the text box Text To Be Replaced type _cooltvstation
6. Make sure the text box Replace With is empty.
7. The new file names should now look something like this: the_x_tv_show.avi
8. Click Add Method again.
9. Select Replace Method and click OK.

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 10. In the text box Text To Be Replaced type_
11. In the text box Replace With type a space.
12. The new file names should now look something like this: the x tv show.avi
13. Click Add Method once again.
14. Select New Case Method and click OK.
15. Check the radio button Set Upper Case First Letter In Every Word.
16. Set Apply To to Name.
17. The new file names should now look something like this: The X Tv Show.avi
18. Verify the names in the list.
19. Click Start Batch.

What we did here was to use more than one method at the same time to produce the desired
result. When using more than one method you should make sure they are applied in the correct
order. You can move the methods up and down to change the order in which they are run.

Pictures

Case: I have taken a bunch of pictures with my digital camera and want to change the file names
from something like DSCF3028.jpg or something more useful with the date and time the picture
was taken in the file name of the picture.

Most digital cameras store information about the picture directly in the picture file when it is
taken. Advanced Renamer can use this information to give the file a name with the date and time
the picture was taken.

Do the following:

1. Add the files to the list.

2. If there is methods in the list click the Clear Methods toolbar button.
3. Click Add Method.
4. Select New Name method and click OK.
5. In the text box type: <IMG Year>-<IMG Month>-<IMG Day>_<IMG Hour>-<IMG
Min>-<IMG Sec>.<Ext>
6. Verify the names in the list and click Start Batch.

Tips: If you have taken more than one picture within a second this will not work because more
than one file will get the same name. To make it work you need to change the Name Collision
Rule to Append Incrementing Number or Append Img Subsec.

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 Scripting
I often get various questions at the forum for how to use the program and how to configure it for
various tasks. Sometimes the particular task is so complex and so specialized that the batch
methods supplied with Advanced Renamer cannot help the user. This is why I added JavaScript
support to the program and in the next paragraphs I will show you how it works.

I will base my example on a simple task.

Imagine we have a lot of files where we want
all odd files to end with A and all even to end
with B. The files could have names like this:
img2001.jpg
img2002.jpg
img2003.jpg
img2004.jpg
img2005.jpg
img2006.jpg

We want the resulting filenames to end up

like this:
img2001_A.jpg
img2002_B.jpg
img2003_A.jpg
img2004_B.jpg
img2005_A.jpg
img2006_B.jpg

First add the files to Advanced Renamer.

Then add the Script method to the method
panel. Make sure this is the only method in
the panel. In the script editor we can create
the script needed for producing the new
filenames. The script is executed once for
each item in the list. The input parameter
item contains the item from the list and its
many properties. Typing item and hitting dot
will show a list of properties on the item
object.

Before creating the actual script we need to

setup a global variable. This is done by clicking the Pre Batch Script button. A window
displaying a new script editor will appear. The script created here will only get run once for
every batch run. This is a good place to setup a global state variable. Type this into the Pre Batch
Script editor:

var odd = true;

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Now for the actual item script. In the script we will use the global variable named odd setup in
the pre batch script, and use it to insert either A or B into the filename. Insert this script into the
editor:

var str = odd ? 'A' : 'B';

odd = !odd;
return item.newBasename + '_' + str;

statement is the line telling Advanced Renamer what the new filename of the item should be.
Notice that we return a complete filename including the extension. Most methods in the program
is by default configured to only work with the name part of the filename, but when it comes to
the scripting method, you need to return a complete filename including the extension.

This example is really simple. But to demonstrate the pre batch script I made it a bit more
complicated than necessary. Try to remove the pre batch script and instead use this script in the
script panel:

var str = index % 2 ? 'B' : 'A';

return item.newBasename + '_' + str;

Notice how the last line is the same but the two first lines for calculating the str variable has
changed. This script will by using the index input parameter, produce the exact same result as the
previous script.

So what else can we do? By using the properties of the item object we can access all information
about the particular item available to the Advanced Renamer batch runner. If we also want to add
the image dimensions to the filename in the script we can use a script like this (assuming we are
renaming image files):

var str = index % 2 ? 'B' : 'A';

return item.newBasename + '_' + item.imgWidth + 'x' + item.imgHeight + '_' +
str;

Any tag available to the program is also available in a script by using the parseTags methods of
the app global object. To add an incrementing number after the base name use this script:

var str = index % 2 ? 'B' : 'A';

var i = app.parseTags('');
return item.newBasename + '_' + i + '_' + str;

The parseTags method will actually take a string containing both normal characters and tags, just
like the New Name method. The rule of thumb here is, if it works with New Name method it will
also work with app.parseTags.

What else can scripting method do? The answer is: Almost anything you want! It is a very
powerful way of customizing the application behavior, but it requires a much larger skill set than
the other methods of Advanced Renamer. For those who find the program too complicated, the

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scripting method will only make it even more complicated. But for those who are already skilled
with programming or scripting skills, the scripting method can be of great help.

Add method.
If your filename is missing some words or
letters, use this method to add some extra to
your filename at a given position.

Add
Specify the text that should be added.
Note: You can use tags here.

At index
Use this to tell Advanced Renamer at what
position in the filename the text should be
added. If you want to add it to the
beginning of the file, set the index to 1. If
the index is longer than the filename, the
text will be added to the end. If the value is
non-numeric the index will be set to the
index of the pattern supplied.

Backwards
Use this to make Position count from the end of the filename. If you check this, set Apply To to
name and set Position to 1, the text will be added just before the last "." (the extension separator).

Use regular expressions

If checked the "At index" value can be expressed as a regular expressions pattern. The pattern
will be translated to a numeric value of the position of the pattern in the filename.

Apply To
Specifies if the change should be applied to the name, extension or both.

Attributes method
This is not a regular renaming method. It
does not change the filename. It only

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changes the file attributes. You can change Archive, Read Only, Hidden or System, to
NoChange, Set or Unset.

This function can be useful when eg. copying files from a CD-ROM. When you copy files from
a CD-ROM, all the files will be read only. You can use this method to remove the read only
attribute of the files.

List method
This is a very simple method. There are no
fancy features in this method. To use it, you
have to type in the new filename of every
file in the list or load the new names from
some external source.

Note: You can use tags in this method.

You can use the Load List and Save List

buttons to load and save lists of filenames.
You can load a file that contains a previous
Advanced Renamer file list (a list saved by
List -> Save List), but you cannot load that
list with List -> Load List.

List replace method

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Works much like the replace method, but
with the ability to add multiple replace
pairs. This makes it easy to replace several
matches.

Use the add button too additional pairs and

use the X button to remove existing pairs.
Text in the left column will be replaced
with the text in the right column

Case Sensitive
If this is checked, the words "hello" and
"Hello" are two different words. If you
want to replace the text no matter what case
they are in, leave this box unchecked.

Use regular expressions

When checked, regular expressions can be
used to replace certain patterns of the
filenames.

Apply To
Specifies if the change should be applied to
the name, extension or both.

Move method.
Use the move method to move a number of characters from one position to another.

Move from
Specifies the index to move from. If the file
name is "my cool file name" and this value
is 4, the start index will be where the letter
"c" is.

Move count
The number of characters to be moved.

Move to
The position to move the characters to. If

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the file name is "my cool file name" and move from is 4, move count is 5, and move to is 1, then
the file name will be "cool my file name".

Move relative
If checked, the value of move to will be relative to the value of move from.

Backwards
If checked, the move from is counted from the end of the filename instead of the beginning.

Use regular expressions

If checked the value of Move From, Move Count and Move To can be a regular expression
search pattern.

Apply to
Specifies which parts of the filename that should be included in the rename.

New case method

This method can change the case of the
filename. This can be very useful for files
used on a website or downloaded from the
web.

You can specify how the case should be

changed by using one of the following :
Lower case
Upper case
Upper case first letter
Lower case first letter
Upper case first letter in every word
Lower case first letter in every word
Set pattern to lower case
Set pattern to upper case
Invert case

Use Apply To, to specify which parts of the

filename that should have new case.

When you choose "Uppercase first letter in

every word" or "Lowercase first letter in
every word", the Word Separator in the
settings window specifies what separates
the words in the filename.

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When using the "Set pattern to lower/upper case" option the pattern text box can be used to only
change the case of a part of the filename instead of the whole filename. If the use regular
expressions checkbox is checked you can also specify the pattern as a regular expression.

New name method

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Use the New Name Method when you want
to completely alter the filenames. This
method is useful when you don't want to
use any parts of the filenames and give
them completely new names. Tags are used
to give each file or folder in the list a
unique name. Use the hyperlink buttons to
insert tags that gives certain information
about the files.

- Learn more about tags.

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 Patterns
If you want to save and load different
patterns for the New Name Method, you can
click the "..." button and the Pattern Dialog
will appear.

Type in your new pattern and click the Add

button. The new pattern will be added to the
list.
To edit a pattern, just select it from the list,
edit it and click the Edit button.
Click the New button to make a new pattern
and click Add when done.
To delete a pattern, right click it in the list
and select Delete or use the Del button on
your keyboard.

Remove method
If you want to remove some of the
characters of the filename, this is a good
method.

Remove
Specify how many characters that should be
removed. If non-numeric the value is used
as a search pattern.

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Starting at
Specify the starting point of the removal. If non-numeric the value is used as a search pattern.

Backwards
When checked, the Start position will be calculated from the end of the filename.

Use regular expressions

If checked the "Remove count" and "Starting at" text fields can be regular expression. The
expresions are used as search patterns and translated to a numeric value.

Apply To
Specifies if the change should be applied to the name, extension or both.

Note: If you want to remove certain characters or words (like all "a"s), use the replace method
instead.

Remove pattern method

Use this method to completely remove a
piece or a pattern from the filename. You
can use it to remove trivial stuff like a
predefined string but you can also use this
method to remove more advanced patterns.
You can use tags and regular expressions to
specify what you want removed from the
file or folder name. This method works as
the Replace Method configured to replace a
pattern with nothing.

See the Replace Method for more details.

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 Renumber method
This method can be used to change existing
numbers in file names. You cannot use this
method to add new numbers, for that use the
New Name or Add method.

Number position
This field decides which number in the
filename you want to change. If the
filename is "File_004_A_202.txt" and you
set it to 2 it is the number 202 that will get
changed.

Change to
The change to drop down box is used to
switch between the two renumbering
modes.
Absolute number is used when you want to
completely renumber the files at a given
start number. The New Number field
decides the number for the first file.
Relative number is used when you want to
add or subtract a value from the existing
number. This can be handy if you have a
sequence of files with gaps between some of
the numbers and you want to preserve this
gap. This is commonly used when a
sequence starts at 0 and you want to change it to start at 1 instead.

New number (only Absolute number mode)

Defines the number of the first file. Subsequent files will get their number calculated based on
this number and the index of the file in the list.

Number difference (only Relative number mode)

If you want to add 3 to the number of all files in the list set this text field to 3. If you want to
subtract three from the numbers type -3 instead.

Skip (only Absolute number mode)

If set to 1 the resulting names will be 001, 002, 003, 004. If set to 2 the resulting numbers will
be 001, 003, 005, 007.

Zero padding
Is used to control the padding of zeros in the new number.
Automatic (the default) will calculate the maximum length of the number and set the padding

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length based on this length.
When Manual is used you can use the Number Length field to specify a minimum length of the
numbers.
No Padding will not add zeros to the front of the number.

Apply to
Use the apply to drop down box to tell the method in which part of the filename it should look
for numbers. Can be set to Name (default), Extension, or Both.

Replace method
If you want to remove some words or letters
from the filename and replace them with
something else, you can use this method.
Just type in the text you want to be replaced
and the text it should be replaced with. This
method can also be used to remove specific
phrases. To do so just leave the box Replace
With blank.

Text to be replaced
This is the text that will be replaced. If you
want to replace more than one phrase, you
can separate the different phrases with \.
Note: You can use tags here.

Replace it with
Specify what the text in the previous box
should be replaced with. If you want to
remove the words and not replace them
with something else, then leave this box
blank.
Note: You can use tags here.

Case Sensitive
If this is checked, the words "hello" and
"Hello" are two different words. If you want to replace the text no matter what case they are in,
leave this box unchecked.

Use regular expressions

When checked, regular expressions can be used to replace certain patterns of the filenames. This
feature is for power users only and requires basic knowledge of using regular expressions with
the PCRE library.

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Apply To
Specifies if the change should be applied to the name, extension or both.

Script method
The script method is probably the most
advanced feature of Advanced Renamer.
With this method a JavaScript experienced
user can extend Advanced Renamer by
writing custom methods right in the
program. As with any method, the script
method can be saved and opened by any
other user on any other computer. Write the
script in the text box and click Apply Script
to see the result in the file list. The Pre
Batch Script button can be used to setup
prebatch variables.

Important resources:
JavaScript Reference
JavaScript Guide

Note, Advanced Renamer uses an embedded

light weight JS engine, so don't expect all
the features of a full blown JS engine.

How to use
The script in the method panel will get
executed once for every file or folder in the
list in the order the files are sorted in the
list. The parameter "index" contains the
number the item in the list has. The
parameter "item" is an object representing
an item in the list and contains every piece
of information Advanced Renamer knows
about this file or folder. The information
can be used to create a new filename which
will be set by returning the new filename.
Remember the new filename must contain the extension of the file.

Objects specific to Advanced Renamer:

The app object has the following properties and methods:

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app.currentIndex [readonly] The index of the currently processed item in the list.
app.currentItem [readonly] The currently processed item in the list.
app.exifToolValue(tag): string Returns the value of the specified tag from the ExifTool.
app.getItem(index) Returns the item at the specified index.
app.itemCount [readonly] The number of items in the list.
Writes a message to the log. To see the log messages,
app.log(message) open the JS console through the button in the main
toolbar.
app.logItem(item) Writes a message to the log containing the item.
app.parseTags(tabs): string Parses the specified string for tags and returns the result.
app.prevItem [readonly] The previous item in the list.

Swap method
The Swap method can swap two parts of a
filename divided by a separator. The
method can be useful when you want to
change "Michael Jackson - Thriller.mp3" to
"Thriller - Michael Jackson.mp3".

Separator
The separator used to divide the two parts of
the filename. Everything on either side will
get swapped.

Occurence
If the separator exists more than once in the
filename you can use this control to define
which occurence of the divider to use when swapping.

Timestamp method

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With the timestamp method you can change
the date and time of the filename. You can
either change it to a fixed date/time, a
date/time relative to the current date/time of
the file, date/time from EXIF tags in
images, or a pattern in the filename.

Apply to
A file contains three different date/time
values. One for when the file was originally
created, one for when it was last access, and
one for when it was last modified. Use these
checkboxes to select which date/time values
you want to change. You can check more
than one of them, but at least one has to be
selected.

Image date and time

If this is checked and the files in the list are
image files the date and time value will be
set to the EXIF date taken value found
inside the image file.

Absolute date and time / Delte date and

time
This determines if the values of the edit
fields below are the absolute time or if the
values are relative to the files current date
and time.
Note: When you change from absolute to
delta time, you should review the values of
the edit fields.

Filename pattern / Dirname pattern

When checked a pattern edit field will be visible in the bottom. In this field a pattern for how the
date and time values can be retrieved from the file or parent directory name. The tags <Year>,
<Month>, <Day>, <Hour>, <Min>, and <Sec> have special meaning in this method. They are
used to specify how the date and time parts are recognized in the name.

Example: If you have a filename with year, month, and day values in the name and you want to
set the file date to this date and the filename is "Summer at the lake 2011-04-01.jpg" the pattern
<Year>-<Month>-<Day> will automatically retrieve the date.

Regular tags can also be used in the pattern, but note that the six date and time tags have special
meaning here.

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Day / Month / Year / Hour / Min / Sec
When absolute or relative date/time is checked you can specify individual time parts in these six
fields. If Delta Date and Time is checked, these values are either added to or subtracted from the
file date/time. If you type 1 in Hour, 1 hour is added to the date/time and if you type -1, 1 hour is
subtracted from the date/time.

Trim method
Use this method to remove unwanted
spaces, dashes, and other unwanted
characters from the beginning and end of
the filename. Sometimes when using many
methods, you end up with too many spaces
in either end of the filename. To avoid this,
use this method.

Default tags
Will insert an increasing number
starting with X and up. X can be any
number value. If you have e.g. 200
files in the list, the program will add
leading zeros to all files below 100
like this 001, 002, 003 etc. If you
don't want leading zeros you can
turn them off in Settings Dialog. To
<Inc
force a certain number of zeros, set
Nr:x:y
the value of X like this 001 for a
>
number length of 3.
Default value for X is 1.

The second optional parameter Y

can be used to define the stepping of
the increasing number. When used
like <Inc Nr:1:2> the results will be
001, 003, 005, 007 etc.
<Inc Acts like <Inc Nr> with the
NrDir exception that this function counts
:x:y> per folder.
Default value for X is 1.

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 The behaviour of the optional parameter Y is the same as the parameter Y for the
<Inc Nr> tag.
Will insert an increasing letter starting with X and up. X can be any letter value.
If you use a small letter, it will use small letters in all the files and big letters if
you use a big on.

<Inc Note: This function can only go up to Z. If you have more files, an error will
Alpha:x:y> occur.
Default value for X is A.

The behaviour of the optional parameter Y is the same as the parameter Y for the
<Inc Nr> tag.
Inserts the original name of the file. Not the path and not the extension, only the
<Name> name. e.g. if you have a file called "c:\windows\notepad.exe", this command's
result will only be "notepad".
Will insert the original files extension. Notice that this tag does not include the
<Ext> ".". e.g. if you have a file called "c:\windows\notepad.exe", the result of <Ext>
will be "exe".
Inserts the last directory name. eg. "c:\windows\notepad.exe" will give
"windows" as result.

If X is a numeric value that value will be used to select a folder name in the
sequence from the right part of the path. If using a negative number for X the
folder name is selected from the left to right..
<DirName:x>
<Dirname:3> for "c:\programs\games\new\mine sweeper\highscore\file.txt" will
yield "new"
<Dirname:4> for "c:\programs\games\new\mine sweeper\highscore\file.txt" will
yield "games"
<Dirname:-1> for "c:\programs\games\new\mine sweeper\highscore\file.txt" will
yield "programs"
This will insert a number telling how many files there is in the directory where
the file is located.
<Num Like the <Inc Nr>, this function is zero padded. To manually override the zero
Files:x> padding, use the x parameter, xxx will zero pad to 3 digits. New in version 3.92

Note: It does not include other directories.

This will insert a number telling how many sub-directories there is in the
directory where the folder is located.
<Num Dirs:x> Note: This only works on folders.
Like the <Inc Nr>, this function is zero padded. To manually override the zero
padding, use the x parameter, xxx will zero pad to 3 digits. New in version 3.92
Inserts the total number of items in the list.
<Num
Like the <IncNr>, this function is zero padded. To manually override the zero
Items:x>
padding, use the x parameter, xxx will zero pad to 3 digits. New in version 3.92

22 - 55
 Will insert a word from the filename index by X. <Word:3> will insert the third
word of the filename. Word are separated by values present in the word separator
<Word:x>
text field in the settings dialog.
Default value for X is 1.

Advanced tags
This is more advanced tags for the more advanced users because they are more difficult to use.

Insert value from the external program ExifTool. VALUE is the name of
<ExifTool:value>
the ExifTool tag to be used.
Will insert a part of the original filename into the new name. The POS and
COUNT parameters are used to define what part of the filename that will
get copyed.
Example of use: <Substr:5:2> will return "wa" for the filename "The
walking man.txt".

The parameters don't have to be numeric indexes, they can also be text
strings to search for in the filename.
Example of use: <Substr:ki:an> will return "ng m" for "The walking
<Substr
man.txt".
:pos:count:start>
The following will yield the same result: <Substr:ki:4>

In the rare cases where you actually want to search for a number in the
filename you can put the search term in quotes.
Example of use: <Substr:"2":2> will return "nd" for "The 2nd door.txt".

The optional START parameter will define where to start searching the
name.
Example of use: <Subtr:".":5:3> will return "Story" for "A.Cool.Story.txt"
Works exactly as the <Substr> tag but searches the string backwards.
<RSubstr
:pos:count:start>
Example of use <RSubstr:2:3> for "A cool baby" will return "bab"
When data has been imported with the "Import data from CSV"
functionality in the Import menu, the values can be used with this tag. The
X is a numeric value representing the column index with the first column
<Csv:x>
having numeric value 1.

Also take a look at this page.

<File Content Will insert a text phrase from a file. It will use the text starting a position
:pos:count:filename> POS in the filename and copy COUNT characters. If FILENAME is
specified, Advanced Renamer will search for the text phrase in that file. If
FILENAME is omitted the file which is being renamed is used.

23 - 55
 If FILENAME is specified it must be quoted with ".

Examples of use:
<File Content:46:12:"c:\program files\files\myfile.txt">
<File Content:56:9>

Note: FILENAME is optional. POS and COUNT is required.

Inserts a random number. MIN and MAX can be used to specify a
<Rand:min:max>
minimum and a maximum range.
Inserts a random string. Use the LENGTH value to specify the length of
<Rand Str:length> the string. Uses the values from a to z in lower case to produce the random
string.
Will insert an incrementing hex based number starting with X and up. X
can be any number value. Note X should be a decimal number, not a hex
<Inc Hex:x:y>
based number. For more information, see <Inc Nr> tag. Default value for
X is 1.
Will insert an incrementing roman numeral starting with X and up. X can
<Inc Roman:x:y> be any number value. Note X should be a decimal number, not a roman
numeral. For more information, see <Inc Nr> tag. Default value for X is 1.
Works like the <Inc Nr> tag but ads a decrementing number instead of an
<Dec Nr:x:y> incrementing one. The X value is used to tell the program what the starting
number will be and Y is the step value between each file.

Datetime tags
Inserts the value belonging to the tag based on the computers local time and date. They are very
self-explained. Remember that these values are calculated at start of rename and not when the
file is actually renamed. All tags except <Year> have a length of two characters at all time.

<Date:format> Format date and time based on format string.

<Time:format> yy: 2 digit year
yyyy: 4 digit year
m: Month
mm: 2 digit month with leading zero
mmm: Month as text, short
mmmm: Month as text, long
d: Day
dd: 2 digit day with leading zero
ddd: Day of week as text, short
dddd: Day of week as text, long
h: Hour
hh: 2 digit hour with leading zero
n: Minute
nn: 2 digit minute with leading zero

24 - 55
 s: Second
ss: 2 digit second with leading zero
<Time:format>
<Sec>
<Min>
<Hour>
<Day>
The optional parameter can be used to specify another format than the
standard leading zeros format.

Possible parameter values:

0: No leading zeros.
00: Leading zeros
<Month:x>
xxx: Short textual (jan, feb etc.)
Xxx: Short textual with starting capital letter (Jan, Feb etc.)
XXX: Short textual in capital letters (JAN, FEB etc.)
xxxx: Long textual (january, february etc.)
Xxxx: Long textual with starting capital letter (January, February etc.)
XXXX: Long textual in capital letters (JANUARY, FEBRUARY etc.)
<Year:x> Set X to 00 to force the year value into a 2 digit value
<UnixTimestamp>

Datetime created tags

Use these tags to insert the created date or time of the file or folder. All tags except <Year
Created> has a length of two characters at all time.

<Date Created:format>
See <Date> tag for a description of the parameter.
<Time Created:format>
<Sec Created>
<Min Created>
<Hour Created>
<Day Created>
<Month Created:x> See <Month> tag for a description of the parameter.
<Year Created:x> See <Year> tag for a description of the parameter.
<UnixTimestamp Created>

Datetime modified tags

Use these tags to insert the modified date or time of the file. These work the same way as the
Date/Time Created Tags. All tags except <Year Modified> have a length of two characters at all
25 - 55
time.

Note: These tags do not work on folders.

<Date Modified:format>
See <Date> tag for a description of the parameter.
<Time Modified:format>
<Sec Modified>
<Min Modified>
<Hour Modified>
<Day Modified>
<Month Modified:x> See <Month> tag for a description of the parameter.
<Year Modified:x> See <Year> tag for a description of the parameter.
<UnixTimestamp Modified>

Image tags
These tags only work on a selected amount of image files. Some tags, like the width and height,
work on most images, other tags like Author and Copyright needs valid Exif information
embedded in the image files. Also note that not all tags are supported by all cameras.

<Img Year:x>
Use these tags to insert date and time values for the date the picture
<Img Month:x>
was taken.
<Img Day>
<Img Hour>
See <Month> tag for a description of the parameter for the <Img
<Img Min>
Month> tag.
<Img Sec>
Will insert the subsecond part of the EXIF information. This value is
<Img Subsec> not always present in jpeg files but some cameras will add this value
when taking pictures in burst mode.
<Img
DateOriginal:format>
<Img
DateCreate:format>
See <Date> tag for a description of the parameter.
<Img
TimeOriginal:format>
<Img
TimeCreate:format>
<Img DPI> Inserts the image resolution as dots per inch.
<Img Width> Inserts the image width if possible.
<Img Height> Inserts the image height if possible.

26 - 55
<Img Width Inch>
<Img height Inch These tags are special width/height tags for adding the width or height
<Img Width Cm> in inches, centimeters, or millimeters to the filename. The width and
<Img Height Cm> height in pixels are used with the DPI resolution embedded in metadata
<Img Width Mm> in the file. If no DPI-value is present 72 is used as a default.
<Img Height Mm>
<Img Author> Inserts the Author value of the EXIF-information of the image.
<Img Copyright> Inserts the Copyright value of the EXIF-information of the image.
<Img CameraMake> Name of camera vendor (Canon, Nikon, Sony etc.)
<Img CameraModel> Name of camera model (EOS60D, D7000, Alpha A 550)
<Img Subject> Inserts the Subject value of the EXIF-information of the image.
<Img Title> Inserts the Title value of the EXIF-information of the image.
<Img Aperture>
<Img Brightness>
<Img FocalLength>
<Img ISO>
<Img ShutterSpeed>
<Img ExposureTime>
<Img Contrast> Resulting values can be: Soft, Normal, Hard
Resulting values can be: Auto exposure, Manual exposure, Auth
<Img ExposureMode>
bracket
Resulting values can be: Not defined, Manual, Normal program,
<Img
Aperture priority, Shutter speed, Creative program, Action program,
ExposureProgram>
Portrait mode, Landscape mode
<Img Saturation> Resulting values can be: Low, Normal, High
<Img Sharpness> Resulting values can be: Soft, Normal, Hard
<Img WhiteBalance> Resulting values can be: Auto, Manual

Video tags
Video tags can be used to extract information from video and movie files. Note, not all video
types and codecs are supported.

<Video Width> Inserts the width of the video.

<Video Height> Inserts the height of the video.
<Video FrameRate> Number of frames per second.
<Video
Date:format>
See <Date> tag for a description of the parameter.
<Video
Time:format>
<Video Date Use these tags to insert date and time values for the date the video was
Year:x> produced.

27 - 55
<Video Date
Month:x>
<Video Date Day>
See <Month> tag for a description of the parameter for the <Video Date
<Video Date Hour>
Month> tag.
<Video Date Min>
<Video Date Sec>
<Video Duration> The total duration of the video formatted in hours, minutes, and seconds
The hour time part of the video duration. Use parameter to control zero
<Video Hour>
padding: <Video Hour:0>
The minute time part of the video duration. Use parameter to control zero
<Video Min>
padding: <Video Min:0>
The second time part of the video duration. Use parameter to control zero
<Video Sec>
padding: <Video Sec:0>
<Video Codec> The video codec used to encode the video (DivX, XviD).
<Video Audio
Audio codec used to encode the audio in the video file (AC, MP3).
Codec>
<Bitrate> Bitrate of both video and audio combined.
<Video Bitrate> Bitrate of the video part of the file.
<Video Audio
Bitrate of the audio part of the file.
Bitrate>

Document tags
Tags used for document-based files. Documents include PDF, Word and PowerPoint
presentation.

<Doc
The number of pages in the document or the number of slides in a presentation.
Pages:x>
Use the parameter to zero pad the output <Pages:xxx> will result in numbers with
New in
a minimum length of 3. No parameter will not pad the number with zeros.
version 3.92
<Doc
Creator>
Document creator, if available.
New in
version 3.92
<Doc Title>
New in Document title from metadata, if available.
version 3.92

ID3 tags

28 - 55
These tags only work on MP3 files with an ID3 Tag. These tags will insert the ID3 Tag into the
filename. If a file contains both ID3v1 and ID3v2, only one of them is used. Use the Settings
Dialog to change in which order Advanced Renamer should look for these tags.

Note: If the tag consists of letters that are not allowed in a filename, they are replaced with "_".
It can be changed in the Settings Dialog.

<ID3 Album>
<ID3 Artist>
<ID3 Genre>
<ID3 Title>
<ID3 Track>
<Bitrate>
<Duration> Formattet duration of the audio playtime, like this: 7mins, 4secs
<ID3 Album>
The hour time part of the audio duration. Use parameter to control zero padding:
<ID3 Hour>
<ID3 Hour:0>
The minute time part of the audio duration. Use parameter to control zero
<ID3 Min>
padding: <ID3 Min:0>
The second time part of the audio duration. Use parameter to control zero
<ID3 Sec>
padding: <ID3 Sec:0>

GPS location tags

Some digital cameras record GPS coordinates as an Exif tag in the pictures they take. This is
especially true for cameras in smart phones like iPhones and Android based phones.

The Country, City, and State tags use the GPS coordinates to lookup a textual representation of
where the picture was taken in an online database containing more than 100,000 cities. A
functioning internet connection is needed to use this functionality. When using the City tag the
closest city with a population of at least 1000 people will be used.

Please note that the accuracy of the GPS position might be a little off. This is because it can take
some time for the camera to find the GPS satellites and measure the exact location. The accuracy
is not very important when using the City, State, and Country tags.

<GPS
The country in which the picture was taken.
Country>
<GPS City> The nearest city to where the picture was taken.
The state in which the picture was taken. For countries outside the US this value
<GPS State>
might be blank or contain a region instead.
<GPS Lat> The GPS latitude as a decimal number with four significant decimals.
<GPS Lat The degrees of the latitude.

29 - 55
Deg>
<GPS Lat
The minutes of the latitude.
Min>
<GPS Lat
The seconds of the latitude.
Sec>
<GPS Lat
The latitude direction. Posible values are N and S.
Dir>
<GPS Lng> The GPS longitude as a decimal number with four significant decimals.
<GPS Lng
The degrees of the longitude.
Deg>
<GPS Lng
The minutes of the longitude.
Min>
<GPS Lng
The seconds of the longitude.
Sec>
<GPS Lng
The longitude direction. Posible values are W and E.
Dir>
<GPS Alt> GPS altitude.

File size tags

These tags can be used to insert the size of a file at the time of rename into the filename.

The X parameter is used to specify zero padding of the value. <Filesize Kb:xxx> will result in a
value of minimum 3 digits. New in version 3.92

<Filesize:x> File size in bytes.

<Filesize Kb:x> File size in kilo bytes.
<Filesize Mb:x> File size in mega bytes.
<Filesize Gb:x> File size in giga bytes.
<Filesize Tb:x> File size in tera bytes.

Checksum tags
Calculation of file checksum. Checksum values can be used to verify the contents of a file and
avoid corruption.

<MD5> MD5 file checksum value.

<SHA1> SHA-1 file checksum value.
<SHA256> SHA-256 file checksum value.

30 - 55
 Batch modes
Advanced Renamer was initially made for the purpose of mass
renaming files and folders. From version 3.0 it is also possible to
move and copy files using the same naming technology. The batch
mode drop down box is located above the files. When copy or move
mode is selected a edit field will appear to the right. This field is used
to specify the output folder. The clever part is that tags known from
renaming methods can also be used here. Any non existing folder part
will be created when the file is moved or copied.

Example of use:
When the pattern below is used all the files will be located in a folder
based on when the file was initially created.

c:\temp\output\<Year created>\<Month created>

The tags <Substr> and <RSubstr> are especially useful here.

Columns
When you right click the column header, a popup menu will appear. In
that menu, you can choose which columns you want shown.
Note: The column Name cannot be removed.

If you want the columns to be shown in a different order, you can drag
the column headers to new positions. All columns, except for the
Name column, can be dragged.

You can also sort the content of the columns by clicking on them. If
you click one more time, it will sort in reverse order.
Note: Not all columns can be sorted.
Note: When you add new files, the new files will not be sorted
automatically.

31 - 55
The columns can be dragged when there are no files in the list and when there are files in the list.
But it is recommended to set up the columns before adding files to gain higher performance.

If you click the Customize item in the list, you will see the Customize Columns Dialog (shown
below). You can use this dialog for easier control of the columns. Using this dialog will also
increase the performance of column settings.

Use the checkboxes in the Columns List to set whether the column should be shown or not. Use
the 4 buttons (Top, Up, Down, Bottom) to move the items.
Note: The column Name cannot be moved.

To the left you can choose between different predefined column sets. Click one and the settings
for that column set will be shown in the Columns List.

It is also possible to use

the Save Button to save a
new set based on your
settings. When you click
the Save button, you are
asked for a Column Set
Name. Type a new name
if you want to save it as a
new set or type an
existing name to
overwrite an existing
column set.

Command
line
automation
If you need to perform
batches by automatically,
like in a server
environment, you can use
the command line
automation tool. The tool
can be used to perform a
batch defined by a
previously saved batch
method file.

32 - 55
In the Advanced Renamer folder you will find the file arenc.exe Start a shell and run the
arenc.exe with the -h switch to get additional information.

Syntax: arenc [options]

Example: arenc -e batch.aren -p "c:\temp"

-h, -help: Display help.

-v, -verify : Verify results. Only test the batch.
-e, -execute <method list file> : Execute batch method list file.
-t, -type <files|folders> : Perform batch on files or folders. Default: files.
-p, -path <folder path> : Folder to perform batch on. Cannot be used with -i.
-s, -subs : Also add items from sub folders. Only with -p.
-i, -items <items file> : File containing files or folders to execute batch on. Cannot be used with -
p.
-f, -files <file1;file2...> : List of files (separated by ;) to perform the batch on. Cannot be used
with -u or -p.
-o, -order <column> : Column to sort items by. Default: filename. For more info type: arenc help
order.
-od, -orderdesc : Order in reverse order.
-l, -log <log file> : File to output batch result to.
-m, -mode <rename|copy|move> : Batch mode. Default: rename.
-d, -destination <destination folder> : Destination folder when using -m copy or -m move.
-msk, -mask <mask1;mask2...> : Only perform batch on files matching this mask. Only with -p.
-r, -regex : Only perform batch on files matching this regular expression. Only with -p.

ExifTool

33 - 55
ExifTool is a program by Phil
Harvey (exiftool.org) distributed
with Advanced Renamer to create
support for more file formats like
raw camera files, documents, zip
files etc. ExifTool supports both
more formats and more tags which
can be used to mass rename files
through Advanced Renamer.

Tag values can get investigated by

selecting a file and clicking the
ExifTool button in the Fileinfo box.
From here you can copy a
<ExifTool:> tag and paste it into a
method of choice.

At the time of writing ExifTool

supports the following file formats:

34 - 55
 Hasselblad RAW

3FR
3rd Gen. Partnership Project 2
3G2, 3GP2
audio/video
3rd Gen. Partnership Project
3GP, 3GPP
audio/video
American College of Radiology ACR-
ACR
NEMA
Adobe [Composite/Multiple Master]
AFM, ACFM, AMFM
Font Metrics
AI, AIT Adobe Illustrator [Template]
Audio Interchange File Format
AIFF, AIF, AIFC
[Compressed]
APE Monkey's Audio
ARW Sony Alpha RAW
ASF Microsoft Advanced Systems Format
AVI Audio Video Interleaved
Windows BitMaP / Device
BMP, DIB
Independent Bitmap
BTF, TIFF, TIF BigTIFF
CHM Microsoft Compiled HTML format
COS Capture One Settings
CR2 Canon RAW 2

35 - 55
 Canon RAW Camera Image File
CRW, CIFF
Format
CS1 Sinar CaptureShop 1-shot RAW
DICOM - Digital Imaging and
DCM, DC3, DIC, DICM
Communications in Medicine
DCP DNG Camera Profile
DCR Kodak Digital Camera RAW
DFONT Macintosh Data Fork Font
DIVX DivX media format
DJVU, DJV DjVu image
DNG Digital Negative
DOC, DOT Microsoft Word Document/Template
Office Open XML Document [Macro-
DOCX, DOCM
enabled]
Office Open XML Document
DOTX, DOTM
Template [Macro-enabled]
Mac OS X Mach-O executable and
DYLIB
library files
DV Digital Video
DVB Digital Video Broadcasting
EIP Capture One Enhanced Image Package
EPS, EPSF, PS [Encapsulated] PostScript Format
ERF Epson RAW Format
DOS/Windows executable and library
EXE, DLL
files
Exchangable Image File Format
EXIF
metadata
EXR Open EXR
F4A, F4B, F4P, F4V Adobe Flash Player 9+ Audio/Video
FFF Hasselblad Flexible File Format
FLA Macromedia/Adobe Flash project
FLAC Free Lossless Audio Codec
FLV Flash Video
FPX FlashPix image
Compuserve Graphics Interchange
GIF
Format
GZ, GZIP GNU ZIP compressed archive
HDP, WDP Windows HD Photo / Media Photo
Radiance RGBE High Dynamic-
HDR
Range
[Extensible] HyperText Markup
HTML, HTM, XHTML
Language
ICC, ICM International Color Consortium color

36 - 55
 profile
IDML Adobe InDesign Markup Language
Phase One Intelligent Image Quality
IIQ
RAW
IND, INDD, INDT Adobe InDesign Document/Template
INX Adobe InDesign Interchange
ITC iTunes Cover Flow artwork
J2C, JPC JPEG 2000 codestream
JPEG 2000 image
JP2, JPF, J2K, JPM, JPX
[Compound/Extended]
Joint Photographic Experts Group
JPEG, JPG
image
K25 Kodak DC25 RAW
KDC Kodak Digital Camera RAW
Apple iWork '09 Keynote
KEY, KTH
presentation/Theme
LA Lossless Audio
LNK Microsoft Shell Link
M2TS, MTS, M2T, TS MPEG-2 Transport Stream
M4A, M4B, M4P, M4V MPEG-4 Audio/Video
MEF Mamiya Electronic Format
MIE Meta Information Encapsulation
MIFF, MIF Magick Image File Format
MKA, MKV, MKS Matroska Audio/Video/Subtitle
MOS Creo Leaf Mosaic
MOV, QT Apple QuickTime Movie
MP3 MPEG-1 layer 3 audio
Motion Picture Experts Group version
MP4
4
MPC Musepack Audio
Motion Picture Experts Group version
MPEG, MPG, M2V
1 or 2
MPO Extended Multi-Picture format
MQV Sony Mobile QuickTime Video
MRW Minolta RAW
MXF Material Exchange Format
NEF Nikon Electronic Format
NMBTEMPLATE Apple iWork '09 Numbers Template
NRW Nikon RAW
NUMBERS Apple iWork '09 Numbers spreadsheet
Open Document
ODB, ODC, ODF, ODG,
Database/Chart/Formula/Graphics/
ODI, ODP, ODS, ODT
Image/Presentation/Spreadsheet/Text

37 - 55
OFR OptimFROG audio
OGG, OGV Ogg bitstream container
ORF Olympus RAW Format
OTF Open Type Font
Lossless Predictive Audio
PAC
Compression
PAGES Apple iWork '09 Pages document
PCD Kodak Photo CD Image Pac
PDF Adobe Portable Document Format
PEF Pentax Electronic Format
PFA, PFB PostScript Font ASCII/Binary
PFM Printer Font Metrics
PGF Progressive Graphics File
PICT, PCT Apple Picture file
PMP Sony DSC-F1 Cyber-Shot image
Portable/JPEG/Multiple-image
PNG, JNG, MNG
Network Graphics
PPM, PBM, PGM Portable Pixel/Bit/Gray Map
Microsoft PowerPoint
PPT, PPS, POT
Presentation/Slideshow/Template
Office Open XML Presentation
POTX, POTM
Template [Macro-enabled]
Office Open XML Presentation
PPSX, PPSM
Slideshow [Macro-enabled]
Office Open XML Presentation
PPTX, PPTM
[Macro-enabled]
PSD, PSB PhotoShop Drawing / Large Document
PSP, PSPIMAGE Paint Shop Pro
QTIF, QTI, QIF QuickTime Image File
RA Real Audio
RAF FujiFilm RAW Format
RAM, RPM Real Audio/Plug-in Metafile
RAR RAR Archive
RAW Kyocera Contax N Digital RAW
RAW Panasonic RAW
RIFF, RIF Resource Interchange File Format
RM, RV, RMVB Real Media/Video [Variable Bitrate]
RSRC Mac OS Resource
RTF Rich Text Format
RW2 Panasonic RAW 2
RWL Leica RAW
RWZ Rawzor compressed image

38 - 55
 Unix ELF executable and Shared
SO
Object files
SR2 Sony RAW 2
SRF Sony RAW Format
SRW Samsung RAW format
SVG Scalable Vector Graphics
SWF Shockwave Flash
THM Canon Thumbnail
THMX Office Open XML Theme
TIFF, TIF Tagged Image File Format
TTF, TTC True Type Font/Collection
VOB Video Object
VRD Canon DPP Recipe Data
VSD Microsoft Visio Drawing
WAV Windows digital audio WAVeform
WEBM Google Web Movie
WEBP Google Web Picture
WMA, WMV Windows Media Audio/Video
WV WavePack lossless audio
X3F Sigma/Foveon RAW
XCF GIMP native image format
XLS, XLT Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet/Template
Office Open XML Spreadsheet
XLSX, XLSM, XLSB
[Macro-enabled/Binary]
Office Open XML Spreadsheet
XLTX, XLTM
Template [Macro-enabled]
Extensible Metadata Platform sidecar
XMP
file
ZIP ZIP archive

39 - 55
 File pairs
In the settings dialog you can activate
file pair renaming. This will make sure
file pairs will keep being paired
together.

So what is a file pair? A file pair is

when two or more files are located in
the same folder and differ on the
extension. The following is a file pair:
Img_001.jpg
Img_001.tif

This is tree pairs:

Img_00A.jpg
Img_00A.tif
Img_00B.jpg
Img_00B.tif
Img_00C.jpg
Img_00C.tif

File pairs can be common when

working with image files, where the
same image may exist in different
formats. Some cameras may produce
both a JPEG file and a RAW file. This
is also common for video files.

You can also use this mode to transfer

metadata from a media file to a paired
file. Imaginge using this pattern in the
New Name method:
Img_<Img Width>x<Img Height>_<Inc Nr:002>

For this pair:

Picture_2027.jpg
Picture_2027.txt

The result will be:

Img_2000x1000_002.jpg

40 - 55
Img_2000x1000_002.txt

Note, the media file must be located before the paired file in the list.

Hotkeys
F1 Show this user guide
F2 Override new filename of selected items
F5 Refresh the list
F9 Start batch
Del Remove the selected file(s) from the list
Ins Add file(s) to the list
Ctrl + Alt + Up Move selected file(s) up
Ctrl + Alt + Down Move selected file(s) down

Metadata write
You can use the metadata write functionality to change existing metadata of files. Select
Metadata in the menu and you will see the window below. Choose the tag to change and fill in
the value of "New value". When finished click "Start batch".
If all files should have the same value, you can click the action button and click "Copy value to
all".

Note! You can only change metadata fields, like Exif metadata, that already have values. You
cannot add new fields. It is recommended to backup all the files prior to running a metadata write
batch.
Also note, this will only work on some file formats. Will not work with ID3 tags in MP3 files.

41 - 55
 Name collision rules

When making new names there is a chance of two files ending up with the same name. The
default behavior is to fail and not rename the file but you can change this behavior by applying a
different name collison rule. The 4 rules are described below.

Fail

Don't let Advanced Renamer rename files with a name collision. This is the default behavior.

Append incrementing number

Will append a incrementing number grouped by similar filenames. If the resulting new names are
as follows:

Foo.txt
Foo.txt
Bar.txt
Bar.txt
Bar.txt

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The resulting names will be:

Foo.txt
Foo_001.txt
Bar.txt
Bar_001.txt
Bar_002.txt

Append image sub second

Will append the Exif value Image Sub Second (if present) to files with the same name.

Append pattern

When using this collison rule a text box will allow you to supply a pattern containing tags that
should be applied to the end of all files with a collision.

Regular expressions
A regular expression language is a powerful way of manipulating with texts. Advanced Renamer
supports the use of regular expressions for pattern searching and replacing in several methods.
The use of these expressions is primarily meant for power users and people with programming
experience but none the less gaining knowledge of the basics will prove to be very rewarding. A
standard library called PCRE is used which means that people with prior knowledge of this
library will feel right at home. Those learning this for the first time will also be able to use the
skills in other similar tools.

This page will try to give you basic knowledge about the use of regular expressions in the
context of file renaming.

A simple regular expression

A regular expression contains normal characters and metacharacters. The normal characters are
interpreted as they are while the metacharacters have special meaning. Let's start out with a
simple expression:

zip_\d\d\d\d

Given the expression above the resulting match of a filename "BayTower_zip_4500.txt" will be
"zip_4500". The "\d" is a metacharacter which represent any numeric value raging from 0 to 9.
The above expression matches any phrase starting with "zip_" followed by 4 digits.

How can we use this for renaming?

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The most common method with regex support is the Replace method. If you in the first text field
type the above expressions "zip_\d\d\d\d" and in the second text field type "zip_unknown" any
file containing "zip_" followed by 4 digits will get this text phrase replaced by "zip_unknown".

Sequences

What if we don't know how many numbers a zip code consists of? What if some files contain
"zip_123" and others "zip_384739"? The above expression will only match if there are exactly 4
digits. If we don't know how many digits there are we can use another meta character. Consider
this expression:

zip_\d+

The plus + will match the previous character 1 or more times which means that this expression
will match "zip_123" and "zip_1234" and "zip_8000000".

Grouping

It is possible to define subpatterns within the pattern itself which proves very useful when using
the replace method. A group is defined by enclosing a part of the pattern in a parenthesis ().
Given this pattern:

zip_(\d+)

The match is exactly the same as before except now we can access the value of the subpattern in
a replace scenario. If in the replace method we put "\1_zip" in the second text field the result will
show that the two parts of the filename have changed place. If the filename contains "zip_123"
the filename will contain "123_zip" after the method has been applied. The value of the special
metacharacter \1 is in this case "123" . If more than one group is used the next group name will
be \2.

A more advanced example

If we have a filename like this "Michael Jackson - Thriller.mp3" and we want to change it to
something like this "Thriller - Michal Jackson.mp3" we can apply a regular expression in the
replace method like this:

Text to be replaced: (.*) - (.*)

Replace with: \2 - \1

In this case some familiar notation is used but also two new metacharacter. The dot matches
anything character digit or non-digit. The star * matches the previous character 0 or more times.
The pattern is build of two similar groups divided by - . The first group matches "Michal
Jackson" and putting it into \1 while the second group matches "Thriller" putting it into \2.
Because the first group is replaced by the value of the second and vice versa, the two parts of the
filename change place.

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Metacharacters

\w Word character [a-zA-Z_]

\W Non-word character [^a-zA-Z_]
\d Digit character [0-9]
\D Non-digit character [^0-9]
. Any character
^ Start of line (start of filename)
$ End of line (end of filename)
[...] Characters contained in list. E.g. [abcd]
[^...] Characters not contained in list. E.g. [^abcd]
(...) Subpattern group. E.g. (.*)
(...|...) Subpattern group alternation. E.g. (\d*|\D*)
* Match previous character or metacharacter 0 or more times
+ Match previous character or metacharacter 1 or more times
? Match previous character or metacharacter 0 or 1 times
{n} Match previous character or metacharacter exactly n times. E.g. \d{4}
{n,} Match previous character or metacharacter at least n times. E.g. \d{3,}
Match previous character or metacharacter at least n times but no more than m
{n,m}
times. E.g. \d{3,5}
\1 Sub pattern value 1 for use in pattern based replace

The List
Files vs. Folders
You cannot rename both files and folders at the same time. You can choose between Files View
or Folders View by using the two buttons above the list.

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Add Files
There are several ways to add files to the list.
You can drag files from Explorer or any
other file manager. You can also click Add
in the toolbar or in the right click menu or
click the Insert button on your keyboard, and
select the files you want to add from the
open files dialog.

Add all Files in a Directory

You can also choose to select all files in a
directory by clicking first Add then
Directory in the toolbar. A dialog like the
one to the right will appear.
If you want all files in subdirectories to be
added as well, you can check the Include
Subdirectories checkbox.
Use the Mask box to specify what file types
you want to add. If you want to add more
than one file type, you can separate them
by ; ( eg. *.jpg;*.gif ). If you want to add all
files, just leave the Mask blank.
Note: This is not possible when you are in
Folders View.

Add Folders
To add a folder to the Folders View, the best
way is to drag them from Explorer or any
other file manager. Another way is to click
Add and then Directory in the toolbar. That
is the same as right clicking in the list and
choose Add or just hitting the Insert button
on your keyboard.

Remove Items
To remove items from the list, you just
select them and select Remove from the
right click popup menu. Or you can use the
Delete button on your keyboard.

Move Items
It is also possible to move the items to
another position in the list. It is only possible
to drag one item to a new position, but if you
use CTRL + UP or Down, you can move all
selected items either up or down.

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Save List
If you want to save the list for later use, you can either click List -> Save in the toolbar or you
can right click and choose Save List. The list will be saved in a regular text file, which can be
opened in any text editor.

Load List
To load a list of files, click List -> Load in the toolbar or right click and choose Load List. The
list does not have to be a list saved by Advanced Renamer. You can write the list in any raw text
editor, save it and load it in the application.

Thumbnail mode
To enter and exit thumbnail mode, use the button Thumbnail on the
toolbar. Thumbnail mode is intended for sorting and renaming image
files by displaying the actual image instead of the small icon in the
list.
You can use the settings dialog to specify the size of your thumbnails.

Next to the Thumbnails button there is a View Style selection button. The button can be used to
change how the files will be displayed in the list. Some views are more suited for sorting image
files than others but displays less details.

Be aware that extracting thumbnails from all the files in the list may take some time and stress
your computer hardware. Using too big a list in thumbnail mode can make Advanced Renamer
and your computer slow.

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 Environment

Explorer Context Menu

When turned on you will be able to add files and folders in Windows Explorer by just right
clicking the items.
Default: Off

Associate .aren files with Advanced Renamer

Files named .aren containing renaming presets can be opened with Advanced Renamer. If
checked these files will when executed load the presets from the file.
Default: On

Save settings folder

Those where to save your personal settings. Normally the files are located in an application
folder in the user account folder. If you prefer you can store the files where aren.exe (the
Advanced Renamer executable) is located. This is the setting used when using the program in a
portable configuration.
Default: When using the installer: Perosnal folder, when using the portable version: Same folder
as aren.exe

Image files

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Thumbnail width & heigh
This specifies the dimension of the thumbnails when Advanced Renamer is in thumbnail mode.
The thumbnail mode works with any file, but is only really useful when sorting and renaming
pictures.
Default: Width: 120 Height: 120

EXIF-field for image date time operations

Image files can have up to three different timestamps stored in the Exif informations. Use this
option to choose which value you want Advanced Renamer should use when reading file
information.
Default: Date taken

Use EXIF information for image width and height

If turned on, the program will look for image width and height in the EXIF part of the image file.
If no EXIF information is found, Advanced Renamer will open the image to determine the
dimensions of the image. If this feature is turned off the program will always open the image file
to find the width and height which is slower than using EXIF. EXIF is primarily used on JPEG
images taken with a digital camera.
Default: On

Music & video files

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ID3 Sequence
Choose in which order Advanced Renamer should look for ID3 tags in music files.
Default: ID3v2, ID3v1

Don't analyze music metadata

Set this to skip metadata analysis og music files. Can be used to speed up adding files.
Default: Off

Don't analyze video metadata

Set this to skip metadata analysis og vidoe files. Can be used to speed up adding files.
Default: Off

Program
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Show FileInfo Box
If checked, the FileInfo Box to the left of Advanced Renamer is shown.
Learn more about the FileInfo Box here.
Default: on

Confirm Clear list

When you select Clear from the List menu or close Advanced Renamer, when there are still files
in the list, a confirmation box will be shown. If you uncheck this, the confirmation box will not
be shown.
Default: on

Show grid
Toggles the file and folder list grid.
Default: on

Show help getting startet

Will display a button in the grid for fast access to the quick help when there is no files in the list.
Default: on

Check for updates at start up

Let Advanced Renamer automatically check for updates every time the program starts. A link to
the download site will be displayed in the bottom of the main window when there is an update.
Default: on

Show add method button bar

Determines if the button bar for quick access to adding methods should be visible.
Default: on

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Show start button to the left
Some like the "Start batch" button to left other to the right. Choose your preferred position.
Default: Off

Item limit
The maximum number of files or folders the program can hold in the list. Increase this if
necessary. Note, can make the program slow if set to high
Default: 25000

Renaming

Replace Unsupported With

Determines what unsupported chars in ID3/MP3 Tags should be replaced with. ID3 Tags often
includes chars that are invalid for filenames eg. : or /.
Default: _

Word separators
Some features work on the words of a filename. The New Case method can change case of the
first letter of every word, and the Word tag can be used to insert a word from the filename in an
other location of the filename. Use this text field to change which characters are used to separate
the words.
Default: . ,_-()[]{}!

Add files when batch ends

Setup what Advanced Renamer should do when a batch is done. When set to Ask, a window

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with four choices will be shown after the batch is done.
Default: Ask

Use zero padding in Inc Nr tags

When turned on the numbers produced by Inc Nr and Inc NrDir will have leading zeros. The
number of leading zeroes will depend on the number of items in the list or the number of files in
the folder depending the tag in use.
Default: On

Checked state affects Inc Nr tags

If checked the Inc Nr tag will only increment for items in the list where the checkbox is checked.
Default: Off

Rename file pairs with the same new filename

Determines if the file pair renaming feature should be turned on or off.
Default: On

Files from CSV import

With the CSV import window you can import both files and new file names into Advanced
Renamer.

Filename
The csv file can either be a file previously saved by Advanced Renamer or created in a program
like Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice.

Base folder
If the csv file doesn't contain absolute paths to original files, you can use this control to define a
common base path for the files.

Column separator
The separator used to separate the individual columns in the csv file. This is usually ; or ,.

First line is header

If the first line in the csv file is a header line describing the column names you should check this
to ignore this line.

Column for original filename / Column for new filename

The column index of the original file names and the new filenames.

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 Data from CSV import
Advanced Renamer will automatically import embedded metadata from files added to the list. If
you have metadata not embedded directly in the files you can instead import the metadata from a
CSV file. To do so, click Import -> Data from CSV. A window from which to choose a CSV file
will appear.

After import the tag <Csv:X> can add the value of the column represented by X to the filename.
X is a numeric value starting from 1 representing the index of the column to use. The first
column can be used by using this tag <Csv:1>.

Filename>
The location of the CSV file to import. The file can be created using Microsoft Office,
Libreoffice, or another spreadsheet tool.

Column separator
The separator used to separate the individual columns in the csv file. This is usually ; or ,.

First line is header

If the first line in the csv file is a header line describing the column names you should check this
to ignore this line.

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File encoding
If your file doesn't load well or the characters look wrong, maybe loaded with a different
alphabet, your file encoding might not match the encoding used for import. Use this drop-down
box to choose an alternate encoding if needed.

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