Sometimes you just need some files to be used or played in a specific order. For example, on (old) mp3 players, your songs will be played in alphabetical order, not the order in which you’ve put them in the map. This problem also occurs when you want to burn files in a specific order, most burning apps just sort them alphabetically. The quickest solution to this problem is to add numbers in front of the songs, listing them in the right order. Doing this by hand would take ages, but luckily Refile can do this for you in no time, for free. Yes, free, some people want $30 for their bulk renaming tools.
It’s clear that ReFile, or Fast Renamer (as the application is called when you’ve downloaded it), is free. Not because it’s open source, but because of the bugs. Some parts of the UI doesn’t seem to work on all windows XP computers. This isn’t a real problem because only the advanced options won’t appear correctly (and you will probably not use them), but it isn’t very user friendly. Next to that, it takes you some time to figure out how this program works, because it isn’t very obvious, and the broken english used isn’t helping either (oui and non are used in stead of yes and no, and the readme is quite funny to read, you should read it… really).
So can you rename a lot of files with this software? The answer is yes, it’s not easy, but it’s posible. The best way is to drag the files you want to rename (for example, you want to number your files) into the application. If you hold down the appropiate buttons, your files are sorted the way you want. Because this doesn’t always happen, you will probably have to drag them in the order you want. Having done this, you should expect that you could add a number in front of the title with just a click on the button, but unfortunatley, this doesn’t work. If you just use the "add number/letter generator" your filenames will change into numbers/letters without a name or extension. You need to press "add string" to add a space between the numbers and the name of the file, and finally you must add "name.ext" to get your name like: "023 lol.jpg". It’s like you glue a few blocks to each other. The first block contains the number, the second block the space and the last block the old name + extension. If you don’t know this, it needs a few tries to discover this. Luckily there’s an undo tool, well hidden in the map where you’ve placed this application. This tool doesn’t seem to be accessible through the main application.
Needless to say, this is not the user friendliest piece of software in the world. But it will reward you if you figure out how it works. If you know the trick, just adding numbers in front of your files is easy, and it will work, but this application offers a way to add your own piece of text to the filename, and several numbers or letters, which you can configure in length. You can also configure how large the steps are between the numbers, and where the counting should start, so it’s probably as advanced as you need it. This makes it a fully useable renaming tool.
Another positive thing is that you won’t need to install it. You just unzip the package, and you’re ready to roll. You can probably even use it as a portable app. on your USB device. The question is: why would you want to use this piece of software? One of the reasons is that it’s free, and it doesn’t need any installing. Of course, it isn’t user friendly, but if you’ve figured out how it works, you can rename everything to nearly everything in the way you want it, which really spares you some time adding numbers in front of your songs, images, folders or anything. That’s another reason to use this application: it can rename really any file or folder, some other free applications only seem to rename mp3’s or images.
So if you’re looking for a tool that can rename a lot of files/folders at once, adding numbers or letters in front of them, ReFile, or Fast Renamer(?), can be really helpfull to you. It does require some time finding out how it works, but it will reward you with quite some renaming possibilities.
Evaluation
6/10
Screenshots
Platforms
OS independent
You save up to
$30
Links
Website
Download ReFile