Siren

CNET Editors' review

Scarabee Software's Siren is easy-to-use but powerful file-renaming freeware. It quickly renames, moves, or copies selected files using expressions you create. Suppose you want to rename all the images in a folder sequentially. Instead of manually renaming each in sequence, Siren can do the whole batch at once. It displays image previews and tags to help you be sure you've got the right files.

Siren is portable freeware that runs as soon as you click the program file without having to be installed or registered in Windows. When we first opened the program, a "first contact" dialog appeared with a brief but clear explanation of how it works. Siren is so easy to start up with that it practically explains itself, but an extensive Help file and online demo are available as well as an Expression Testbed tool to help inexperienced users get up to speed quickly. Siren's Explorer-style layout is clean and attractive, with a well-stocked toolbar and plenty of options, including a Wizard under the View menu. A tree view and preview pane in the left-hand sidebar made adding files easy. The preview pane is small but more than adequate for telling one file from another. Siren's Filter tool lets you filter your files by expression, file extension, and name or keyword. The program even incorporates a Favorites feature for saving and recalling expressions similar to Web site favorites.

Following the demo's example, we browsed to a folder of image files, selected a few, and then entered an expression combo. Siren offers plenty of help with this step, too, including a helpful Completion dialog jam-packed with tabbed lists of expressions ranging from Audio to Environment. Pressing the "Play" button processed our selections and activated the Undo button. When we opened the destination folder, all our checked files were present under their new names and numbering. Siren is a capable tool that will do more for you the more you use it. It's capable of making quick work of bringing order to your file chaos.

Publisher's Description

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All User Reviews

Results 1-6 of 6

  • 5.0 stars

    "No flash, all function"

    May 9, 2010  |   By daver1212

    Version: Siren 2

    Pros

    Very powerful rename tool with a price that can't be beat.

    Cons

    Nothing to dislike. It does what I need. The selection mechanism is a little unique but once you learn it, very flexible.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Really fills a need"

    November 11, 2008  |   By bcoulam

    Version: Siren 2

    Pros

    Focused. Does exactly what I need it to do and does it well. FANTASTIC array of expressions, syntax, variables and formats to customize file names in batches.

    Cons

    It's not the most fantastic UI on the planet, but it's solid, and you can't beat the price (free).

    Summary

    Many friends and family send me photos whose cameras named the files with different formats. I like all my pics to follow a certain file naming convention. This program allows me to process entire directories of photos in less than a second, renaming the funky external photos with my own convention. I used to spend hours doing this by hand. Siren has saved me SO much time. It can derive components for the name from all sorts of info regarding the existing file name and path, and meta-data stored within the file itself for images (Exif, IPTC, Jpeg), video, audio, docs and other types of files. Although I only need about 4 custom filters that took me 5 minutes to figure out using his straightforward help system, the options and flexibility to handle any situation are mind-boggling.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Versitile and clean"

    June 6, 2006  |   By Waldo120

    Version: Siren 1.90

    Pros

    This program has A LOT of variables you can use when renaming files and a general expression bar, making it very versitile for almost any set of files. The interface can be complicated, if you don't use the right click on a shown variable and select "insert pointed variable". This will add whatever it takes to create that column of information into the expression that is used to rename files; saving you from finding the expression for your tag. An example of an expression is to rename your mp3 filenames by "artist - song.mp3" your expression would be "%ma - %mt.%e". Or to name a bunch of pictures "trip title - incrementing number.jpg" your expression would be something like "Yosemity - %n.%e". If you are unsure as to the results of an expression you can click "recompute future names" or even set the options to automatically recompute on a single keystroke.

    Cons

    No m4a support last I knew.

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  • 2.0 stars

    "Too complicated for what it does"

    May 1, 2006  |   By Raget

    Version: Siren 1.90

    Pros

    It does an alright job when you finally figure things out

    Cons

    Too hard to figure out things, functions arent worth the learning curve

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Excellent ! I've been using this for a long time to rename thousands of files."

    March 2, 2006  |   By alpha_Omega

    Version: Siren 1.80

    Pros

    - Extremely fast

    - Hell of a lot of features

    - Good UI design

    - Can extract and use a lot of data from different file types such as ExIf data, ID3 tags etc...

    - Allows you to save your Favourite Expressions.

    - Explorer integration

    - The list goes on and on and on...

    Cons

    It can take a little time getting used to the Expression format.

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  • 3.0 stars

    "Could Be Better"

    January 2, 2006  |   By stephanstas

    Version: Siren 1.80

    Pros

    Great at renaming. Quick

    Cons

    You have to retype the entire file name to rename the extention

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Siren