Automation or batch tool for png files?

January 20, 2005 8:05 AM

Dear AskAutomation&BatchFilter, I have 250 png files in a folder (named like this: cat_80.png, dog_80.png, bird_80.png, etc.). I want to put each png in a folder (1 png per folder, and the folders don't exist yet) that is named based on the png (cat_80.png goes in a folder named cat, dog_80.png goes in a folder named dog). Does anyone know of a free tool (WinXP) or method of doing this? I'd prefer a WYSIWIG or menu-based tool, rather than a pointer to a scripting language, unless it's really easy and idiotproof...
posted by chr1sb0y to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Wouldn't it be easier to just sort 'em by name and then drag and drop each group? Of course, that would depend on how many species you have. Of course, if you have too many to make that worth it, you have to question the validity of the task in the first place. :)
posted by DrJohnEvans at 8:19 AM on January 20, 2005

A lot of MP3 tagger programs will organize your files into folders based on the filename. Like, if your files were all named "Aritst_Album_song.mp3" they could seperate it into "artist/album/song.mp3"

Perhaps you can find an MP3 tagger that does this but isn't limited to .mp3 files.

If you were doing more than 1 file per folder you could just do something like "copy C:\source\dog*.png to C:\dog\*dog.png"
posted by bondcliff at 8:39 AM on January 20, 2005

Possibly the Bulk Rename Utility? I haven't used it so I can't promise that it will work, but it seems like it would be able to do the trick.
posted by bDiddy at 8:45 AM on January 20, 2005

Flexible Renamer is the best tool I've found for this. It's pretty simple on the surface but has a full regexp backend for when you want to do something really hairy.

Of course it helps to know regular expressions.
posted by smackfu at 8:53 AM on January 20, 2005

If you wind up doing it by hand, note that F2 is the 'rename selected file' key. Use this knowledge only for good.
posted by fleacircus at 1:18 PM on January 20, 2005