What It Does
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Bulk rename Google Drive™ files/folders quickly and easily with this Add-on. You define exactly what you want to search for in the item name and the text to replace it with. Along with options for handling special characters, regular expressions, append/prepend and sequential numbering to the existing name. Works across My/Shared drives.


Updates
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January 2024:
New payment subscription plan. Those who previously purchased a licence outright are unaffected by this change.

November 2023
New regular expressions options now available.


How To Use
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1) You can access the tool from anywhere in Google Drive™ by clicking the 'Show side panel' button at the far bottom right of the screen. Then select the 'Bulk Rename Files' icon to open the Add-on (if you already had your Google Drive™ open when you installed the Add-on then you may need to refresh the page first for the new icon to appear).

2) Follow the on-screen instructions to click once on the Google Drive™ folder that contains the files/folders you wish to rename (do not double-click to go into the folder).

3) See 'Search Options' below for more information on the renaming options available to you.

4) Click the 'START' button when you are ready and an animated icon will appear. Note: due to Google™ limitations it can only run for up to 25 seconds at a time. After which you will receive a prompt to 'RESUME' in order to continue your progress, if there are still items to rename. Alternatively you can click 'CANCEL' at this point if you do not wish to continue.

5) Once complete you will see a success message with the total number of items worked through and how many of those were renamed.


Search Options
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To help you fully use all features of the tool here are some of the things you can do, note do not include the quote marks in these examples. See more here: https://www.pbainbridge.co.uk/p/bulk-rename-files-add-on.html#anchorSearchOptions

1) Remove text
 > You can remove characters in the existing item name by replacing them with nothing. If you want to avoid a space at the beginning of the new item name then simply use the '<<SPACE>>' tag.
 > In the search text enter what you want to remove e.g. 'Copy of<<SPACE>>' and leave the replacement text empty.
 > Original item name example: 'Copy of Agenda notes'.
 > New item name example: 'Agenda notes'.

2) Change text
 > You can adjust characters in the existing item name by changing their value.
 > In the search text enter the original value e.g. '2022' and in the replacement text enter the new value e.g. '2023'.
 > Original item name example: 'Agenda notes 2022'.
 > New item name example: 'Agenda notes 2023'.

3) Special characters
 > The tool can handle: - [ ] / \ { } ( ) * + ? . ^ $ | #
 > You could remove individual characters.
 > You could replace these characters with others.
 > You could both remove and replace them at the same time
 > Original item name example: 'This experiment belongs to _[Sample]'.
 > New item name example: 'This experiment belongs to Phil'.

4) Replace / remove all character instances
 > Instead of just replacing/removing the first character in the item name you can adjust every time it appears.
 > Original item name example: '.Backup.zip'
 > New item name example: '_Backup_zip'

5) Uppercase
> Change all characters in the item name to uppercase. In the search text enter '<<UPPERCASE>>' and leave the replacement text empty.
> Original item name example: 'File version 3'.
> New item name example: 'FILE VERSION 3'.

6) Lowercase
> Change all characters in the item name to lowercase. In the search text enter '<<LOWERCASE>>' and leave the replacement text empty.
> Original item name example: 'FILE Version 3'.
> New item name example: 'file version 3'.

7) Regular expressions
Create your own powerful search queries to target exactly what you want. Examples:
  > Wildcard search to replace the whole item name if match found:
        Original item name example: 'My first report'.
        New item name example: 'Minutes of meeting'. So search text would be '.*fir.*' and replacement text 'Minutes of meeting'.

  > Wildcard search to append/prepend to the existing item name if match found:
        Original item name example: 'My first'.
        New item name example: 'My first report'. So search text would be '.*fir.*' and replacement text '<<KEEPNAME>> report'.

  > Replace any HTML tags in an item name:
       Original item name example: '<br>My first webpage<br />'.
       New item name example: 'My first webpage'. So search text would be '<[^>]+>' and replacement text left blank if you just want the tags deleting. Alternatively you could enter the text you want to replace them with.

  > Remove all numbers in an item name:
        Original item name example: '3 My first website 12.
        New item name example: 'My first website'. So search text would be '[0-9]' and replacement text left blank.

8) Sequential numbering
 > Append/prepend a sequential number to the existing item name that will automatically increment as it loops through the items. This can start at whatever number you choose.
 > In the search text enter '<<SEQUENCEXX>>' where 'XX' is the number sequence you wish to use (it can be more/less that 2 digits long). In the replacement text enter a combination of '<<SEQUENCE>>' and '<<KEEPNAME>>' (see below) depending on if you want to append/prepend.
 > Original item name example 1: 'My sample file'.
 > New item name example 1: 'My sample file 01'. So search text would be '<<SEQUENCE01>>' and replacement text '<<KEEPNAME>> <<SEQUENCE>>'.

9) Append / Prepend
 > You can add characters to the beginning and/or end of the existing item name.
 > In the search text enter '<<KEEPNAME>>' and in the replacement text enter 'Something before <<KEEPNAME>> something after'.
 > Original item name example: 'is my'.
 > New item name example: 'This is my Document'. So replacement text would be: 'This <<KEEPNAME>> Document'


Pricing
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This Add-on has a 14 day free trial period then requests a monthly subscription of £2.50 to continue using it and all features. No adverts, no in-app purchases, no price increases.
Further details: https://www.pbainbridge.co.uk/p/bulk-rename-files-add-on.html#anchorPayment