Bulk Rename hundreds of files

[Mashtonsmith1]

Hello,

I'm not sure this is doable within Excel so sorry if this is the wrong forum...

I have several hundred files which all need to be renamed.

I have the existing names and I have what they should all be named to on a list.

Is there any way I can do this in bulk as opposed to manually renaming each file?

Thanks

 

[Dan_W]

Sure, very easy to do in Excel (and with VBA), as you can perhaps see from the links at the bottom of this page. How did you want to rename them?

 

[Mashtonsmith1]

Yes I've looked through the other posts but cant see what I need (I dont think so anyway)

All files will have a different name.

e.g. file 1 of 400 might currently be called "extract 2232.pdf" - where I want to rename this as "client name - Dec 2022.pdf"

Ideally it'd be managed by an original name vs new name list and for it to save down to a new location so I dont overwrite the current file.

 

[Dan_W]

Will you find something on here that miraculously happens to do exactly what niche thing you want done? Most likely not, at which point the task is usually to try and work out how to solve each element of the problem.

But anyway, I don't know how to tell VBA to change filename from ?? to ¿¿, so how about this-original filenames in Column A, New folder path in column B and new filename in column C, and you fill it all in? If so, that should be easy to do...

 

[Mashtonsmith1]

sounds like a plan

 

[Dan_W]

Ok, give me half an hour? I need to just jump on a call, but I can do this after that.

 

[Micron]

Name statement is probably the easiest method of renaming files while moving them to another folder.

Name statement (VBA)

Office VBA reference topic

learn.microsoft.com

 

[Dan_W]

Agreed.

@Mashtonsmith1 - is there anything else you can tell me about how you plan on renaming the files? Like, is there anything else I can add to this to make it easier for you, because it's pretty basic thus far.

 

[Mashtonsmith1]

Hello - the only other potential consideration - which is much more complex - is to pick up from each individual pdf - two key merge fields called "EmployerA" and "ANumber" and use those as the name

 

[Mashtonsmith1]

Hello - the only other potential consideration - which is much more complex - is to pick up from each individual pdf - two key merge fields called "EmployerA" and "ANumber" and use those as the name

So there is solution 1 which was the simple case - and solution 2 which I'm not certain I need just yet