Script to Auto Rename Multiple Files in Windows Explorer

Is there a way to automate the renaming of multiple files in windows explorer which will also add the Julian date at the beginning of each file name.

I have a sign-in roster for my employees at work to digitally sign each day when the report to work and again before the depart. I have been taking a single PDF file and copy/pasting it into a folder for each month for as many days there are in the month. I manually change the file name to add each Julian date to the beginning so the employees will know which file to open for that particular day at work. I have 5 different sections so this becomes an extremely tedious task.

Please help.

Hi IndyColtsMan,

There sure is a way to rename files to your desire in an automated fashon via Windows scripting features.

Firstly, more information will be needed.

I need you to clarify or better explain what exactly your situation is. You must be precise in explaining what needs to happen to your input file A.pdf to get your output file B.pdf name.

If you could provide a sample directory tree of your situation, and/or even better; actual sample file names with paths to work with, it would really help.

　

Hello Pyprohly,

What I do is take the attached file and copy it into a folder for the current month for the number of days in the month. For November I will place the file named “Liaison Office” inside a folder named November and copy and paste it 29 more times. Windows Explorer will automatically rename the first copy “Liaison Office – Copy” and the subsequent copies will be named the same with numbers 2 – 29 inside parenthesis.
I need a script to rename all of the files with the Julian dates for 1 – 30 November in front of the file name (ex. “305 Liaison Office.pdf”; “306 Liaison Office.pdf”; “307 Liaison Office.pdf”…”334 Liaison Office.pdf”). So now when my employees come to work they will check the Julian date for that particular day of work and digitally sign in on that roster.

I’ve attached screenshots of the folder before (Explorer A) and after (Explorer B) I manually renamed the files. I hope this helps explain what I’m trying to do.

IndyColtsMan said:

I hope this helps explain what I’m trying to do.

I understand what you're trying to achieve now and ... honestly, it doesn't sound easy to turn into a script, let alone a batch script -- the ideal way to automate thing in Windows. But I'll try my best.

Taking a guess at the folder structure implied; suppose it looks something like:

Code:

C:\somepath\documents\2014\November

With

Code:

C:\somepath\documents\2014\November\305 Liaison Office.pdf

being the file for the first of November, 2014. Correct? Because it has been 305 days since... 0/1/2014?


Is the location of the 'original' Liaison Office.pdf (the one that you copy and paste each month) in this directory tree somewhere? If not, where might its location be, relative from say C:\somepath\documents\2014? So that the script may access its location for copying.

The title of this thread is asking to rename muliple files in a folder. But as your situation stands, I reckon it would be of your best interest to extend what you're asking for, and instead, ask for a script that automatically lays out the folder structure for you for that month (or possibly even for that entire year) and copies and renames the correct amount of files as days in that month appropriately. Is this prefered?

Pyprohly,

I have the original file in a separate directory on my hard drive. I have 5 different sections that I do this for (see below) and the actual folders that the employees access are on a shared network drive (V:\HTSI AFSB Kuwait (IZ) Staff Augmentation\ATTENDANCE TRACKER\Attendance Rosters) within another directory labeled as such for the month "305-334 (Nov) 2014". I could actually create another folder and place a copy of all five original files inside the Attendance Rosters folder.

I do believe your suggestion would be better. I would want the automated folders placed inside the folder labeled "Pending" as I only have the folder for the current month visible to the employees.

Does this help?

Here's a script that answers your initial question:

Preview:

Code:

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
REM Duplicate a file for as many days there are in the current month
REM And rename each file with a Julian date infront of the file name
pushd "%~dp0"
call :GetCurrDate
call :SetFebruary
call :GetMonthName %MM%
call :GetJulianDay %MM% %DD%
call :GetMaxDaysInMonth %MM%
call :GetMonthRange %MM%
REM Check that only one other file is in the folder
for /f "delims=" %%I in (' dir /b /a:-d "*.*" ^| find /v "%~nx0" ^| find /c /v "" ') do (
 if "%%I" NEQ "1" echo.& echo Error: Expected exactly 1 other file in directory.& timeout 2 >NUL& goto :eof
)
REM Copy files n number of times for days in current month
set counter=0
for /f "delims=" %%F in (' dir /b "*.*" ^| find /v "%~nx0" ') do (
 for /l %%I in (1,1,%DD_MaxDaysInMonth%) do (
  set /a counter+=1
  copy "%~dp0\%%~nxF" "%~dp0\tmp!COUNTER!%%~xF" >NUL
 )
set FileName=%%~nF
set FileExtn=%%~xF
del "%%~fF"
goto :break
)
:break
REM Rename files in folder
set counter=%MIN_JulianDayInMonth%
for /f "delims=" %%F in (' dir /b "*.*" ^| find /v "%~nx0" ') do (
 ren "%%~fF" "!COUNTER! %FILENAME%%FILEEXTN%"
 if !COUNTER!==%MAX_JulianDayInMonth% goto :break
 set /a counter+=1
)
:break
 
:End
popd
echo.&echo Success.
goto :eof
REM End
REM Functions below
:GetCurrDate
setlocal
 for /f "delims=" %%I in (' date /t ') do (
  set currDate=%%I
  set currDate=!CURRDATE: =!
  set currDate=!CURRDATE:~4!
 )
 for /f "tokens=1-3 delims=/" %%A in ("%CURRDATE%") do (
  set DD=%%A
  set MM=%%B
  set YYYY=%%C
  set Index=!MM!
 )
endlocal & set CurrDate=%CURRDATE%& set DD=%DD%& set MM=%MM%& set YYYY=%YYYY%&
goto :eof
:SetFebruary
setlocal
 set /a Leapyear=YYYY %% 4
 if %LEAPYEAR%==0 ( set Feb=29) else ( set Feb=28)
endlocal & set Feb=%FEB%
goto :eof
:GetMonthName MM
setlocal
 set Index=%1
 for /f "tokens=%INDEX%" %%M in (
  " January February March April May June
   July August September October November December "
 ) do set MM_Name=%%M
endlocal & set MM_MonthName=%MM_Name%
goto :eof
:GetJulianDay MM DD
setlocal
 set Index=%1
 set /a Index-=1
 for /l %%I in (1,1,%INDEX%) do call :GetJulianDay_Sub %%I
 set /a JulianDay+=%2
endlocal & set DD_JulianDay=%JULIANDAY%
goto :eof
:GetJulianDay_Sub
 for /f "tokens=%1" %%M in (
 " 31 %Feb% 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31 "
 ) do ( set /a JulianDay+=%%M)
goto :eof
:GetMonthRange MM
setlocal
 set Index=%1
 
 call :GetMaxDaysInMonth %INDEX%
 set DD=%DD_MaxDaysInMonth%
 call :GetJulianDay %INDEX% %DD%
 set MAX_JulianDayInMonth=%DD_JulianDay%
 
 set DD=1
 call :GetJulianDay %INDEX% %DD%
 set MIN_JulianDayInMonth=%DD_JulianDay%
 
 set MonthRange=%MIN_JulianDayInMonth%-%MAX_JulianDayInMonth%
endlocal & set MIN_JulianDayInMonth=%MIN_JulianDayInMonth%& set MAX_JulianDayInMonth=%MAX_JulianDayInMonth%& set MonthRange=%MONTHRANGE%&
goto :eof
:GetMaxDaysInMonth MM
setlocal
 set Index=%1
 for /f "tokens=%INDEX%" %%M in (
  " 31 %Feb% 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31 "
 ) do set DD_MaxDays=%%M
endlocal & set DD_MaxDaysInMonth=%DD_MaxDays%
goto :eof

Instructions:
1) Place the batch file and a single pdf in a directory of your choice.
2) Run the batch script.

Note: for a date such as 4/3/yyyy, '62' will be the Julian date displayed on the pdf. Would you like this number to be represented by 3 digits instead? E.g. '062'

Feel free to mark the thread as solved while a more complex script for your task is underway.

Meanwhile, thank you for supplying a directory tree, it helps visualise the situation. I'm almost on the same page as you are now, but I'm a little confused on where Liaison Office.pdf files are situated from the directory tree you describe. From what I'm getting, you're saying you do the tedious task of copying and renaming 'Liaison Office.pdf' 5 times each month for the 5 folders inside 'ATTENDANCE TRACKER'?

This is a great technique. You can also check a free software named: BatchRenameFiles Tool. Search on google- BatchRenameFiles Tool and kindly check the first result.