Text Actions

The Text category adds, inserts, removes, replaces and moves pieces of text. These are the actions most renames start with.

Adding and inserting

• Add text to beginning and Add text to end: holiday.jpg → 2026 holiday.jpg
• Insert text in front of existing text and Insert text after existing text: put text next to a word that is already in the name, e.g. insert ` (edited) after final so that report final.docx → report final (edited).docx`
• Insert text at position: IMG_4821.jpg with - at position 4 → IMG_-4821.jpg

Removing

• Remove text from beginning and Remove text from end only act when the name starts or ends with the text: IMG_4821.jpg → 4821.jpg
• Remove text removes the text wherever it occurs

Replacing

• Replace text at beginning and Replace text at end: IMG_4821.jpg → Hubble_4821.jpg
• Replace text replaces the text anywhere in the name. The Simple mode replaces every occurrence; Advanced lets you choose All occurrences, Only the first occurrence, the second to sixth, Only the last occurrence or one of the last six. Ignore case matches Photo and photo alike. To replace spaces with underscores, replace ` ` with _

Moving

• Move text to front and Move text to end: holiday 2026.jpg → 2026 holiday.jpg
• Move text to position, Move text in front of existing text and Move text after existing text move the text to a character position or next to another piece of text

The … in front of existing text and … after existing text variants look for a piece of text in the name (Occurrence of:) and work relative to its first, last or n-th occurrence (After the:), optionally ignoring case. The … at position variants count characters From the start or From the end; if the position does not exist in a name, that name is left unchanged.

For patterns that plain text cannot describe, such as “swap the two words around the dash”, use the regular expression actions. All text actions have the Change: popup to work on the name, the extension or both.

Example

Photos from a trip arrive as DSC_0001.jpg, DSC_0002.jpg, … and should read Paris 0001.jpg, Paris 0002.jpg, …

1. Choose the Text category and the Replace text action
2. Type DSC_ into Replace: and Paris (with a space at the end) into With:
3. Leave Change: on only the file name

The preview shows Paris 0001.jpg for every file. Files whose names do not contain DSC_ are shown in gray and keep their names.