Ever had a folder, that’s full of a bunch of files or photos you need to rename, but can’t be assed going through them one by one, thinking it will take a lifetime to complete? Did you know Windows Explorer can rename multiple files for you in a few seconds?
How To Rename Multiple Files
You probably know how to rename a single file in Windows, right? Let’s recap the basics just in case…
Option 1
Select and highlight a file, press “Alt” click “File” from the menu and select “Rename”.
Option 2
Right click on the file and select “Rename”.
Option 3
Click once to select the file and then click again on the files name to rename.
Using just a keyboard you can:
1. Move the arrow keys to select the file you want and hit “F2” and rename.
2. Use the arrow keys to highlight the file, hit the Menu key on your keyboard and select rename
3. Or if you don’t have the Menu key for whatever reason on your keyboard, some companies tend not to, due to stopping employees from hacking there systems, you can highlight the file in question, hold “SHIFT” and hit “F10” and select rename.
Check this list of Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts
Renaming multiple files at once?
It’s so simple, you’re going to kick yourself that you didn’t just do it.
Open up the folder that has all the files you want to rename,
Highlight the files by either – holding down the “Ctrl” key and selecting files individually, or hold “Shift” and click to select a range of files.
An easier way to select every single file in the folder quickly is to open the folder where the files are, hold “Ctrl” and press “A”.
Or you can hit “Alt” on the keyboard, select “Edit” from the menu and then click “Select all”.
Once the files are all highlighted, use one of the 5 methods above to select rename and you should see that the first file in the list, has become eligible for you to start typing, while all the others remain highlighted.
Now start typing the new file name you want the files to be called and when you’re done hit enter, or right-click anywhere on the screen to save the file name.
You should see that all the files that were highlighted have been renamed, with a separate digit parentheses to differentiate them.
Another tip – when renaming a file, if you want to move on to the next file without clicking rename again, just hit “Tab”, it will save the previous file and allow you to start typing the second straight away.
Any other ways to rename multiple files in Windows, comment below.
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