Panda Batch File Renamer for Windows

Animal Software's Panda Batch File Renamer is a free tool for making stir-fry. No, it's actually a batch file renamer, a tool that renames files in large numbers all at once, the technical term for which is "batches." So, you're mildly impressed but wonder, "Do I need it?" Well, if you have a digital camera or camcorder or an MP3 player, you may have noticed that your pictures and songs don't always make themselves easy to find. It's much easier to rename all of one artist's songs or one summer's snapshots at once than to go through and sort them out one by one. Panda can do that, as well as insert ID data into file names, save renaming options, and queue multiple changes.

During the installation and setup processes, we had the opportunity to select an interface language from an extensive list of options. Panda Batch File Renamer's main interface is divided horizontally between its Add files display and the Renaming options field, with a toolbar-like Main Menu at the top. The interface opened with a pop-up wizard asking us what types of files we wanted to rename, with three choices: pictures and images, music files, and all file types. We could choose whether to display this pop-up via a check box. The program is easy to use; we simply browsed to the files we wanted to rename and added them to the interface. We then selected our Renaming Options from drop-down lists labeled Insert, Replace, Remove, and Other. Each list offered extensive choices such as text, block of text, date/time, and characters, while the Other options list let us change case and reverse or trim text. We simply clicked Rename Selected Files, and the program quickly renamed the batch, displaying the old and new names side by side.

Panda Batch File Renamer did its job quickly and capably. We especially like the ability to save renaming options, which is great if you frequently add digital snapshots to your archives. The online Help file is more like a forum than a manual, but nothing about this program raised flags.