Renamer  -  Multiple file renamer

by Alan Bonsor

Renamer is an invaluable utility for working with files from PC discs, CD-ROMs and the Internet. It will also prove useful if you have a collection of JPEG images which you want to display using the Risc PC's SlideShow application. Renamer provides a number of functions: it can rename more than one file in a single operation; it can remove DOS extensions and capitalize only the first letter of every file name, e.g. FILENAME.TXT becomes Filename; and it can set the filetypes of each file, either based on the DOS extension or on a specified filetype.

Using Renamer
To run Renamer, click on its icon in the RISC User menu system or double-click on its icon in the Filer window. An icon will appear on the icon bar and clicking on this icon will open the Renamer window. Once you have set the options as described below, either click on the Save button to save them for future use, or click anywhere outside the window or on the Close button to close the window. You can then drag a selection of files to the icon bar icon to process them.

The Renamer window is divided into three sections: Style options, Filetype options and Name options.

Style options
The Style options section of the window allows you to specify how file names are converted. Two options are provided: Remove DOS Extension and Capitalize first letter only. DOS file names consist of two sections - the name followed by a suffix or extension, with a dot as a separator, e.g. IMAGE.JPG. The extension is the DOS equivalent of the RISC OS filetype, for example JPG identifies the file as a JPEG image. In addition, DOS file names are always displayed in upper case. When you view DOS file names under RISC OS, the dot separator is changed to a /, so IMAGE.JPG appears as IMAGE/JPG in a RISC OS Filer window. The first option, Remove DOS Extension, removes the / and the extension from the name, so IMAGE/JPG becomes IMAGE. Capitalize first letter only converts file names so that only the first letter is capitalized, so IMAGE become Image.

Filetype options
Base filetype on DOS Extension will perform a *SETTYPE on every file dragged to the Renamer icon, using the DOS extension to identify what the RISC OS filetype should be. Files with the extension JPG will have their filetypes set to &C85 or JPEG, files with the extension TXT will be set to &FFF, etc. The Set filetype to option allows you to specify a filetype which will be applied to all files dragged to the Renamer icon. This will prove useful if the files don't have recognisable DOS extensions. In the Set filetype to writable icon you can either enter the filetype number, &C85 or C85, or you can enter the textual description, JPEG, etc.

Name options
This section of the window allows you to rename files for use with SlideShow and other applications which require files to be named sequentially, e.g. Image01, Image02, Image03, etc. SlideShow for example requires JPEG images to be named sa01, sa02, etc.

 Copyright RISC User Magazine 1996
