one thing a webmaster should NOT do:

January 7, 2006 2:09 PM

In Windows XP, is there any way to load multiple files with the same name (such as index.html, for example), but have an ending letter or number added to differentiate?

I've been running my own websites for years. I usually change my layout every couple of months out of boredom. I'm also not the most organized person - I have a tendency to make folders and "shove" pages in them so I can find them now, but not later on. This means that I have maybe 40 different "index.html" pages on my PC, as well as other pages.

Is there any way to put every single html page into ONE folder, but instead of getting that stupid "There is already a file called index.html. Would you like to write over it?" or whatever it is, is there a way to automatically add a trailing letter or number - like index.html, index1.html, index2.html, etc? If this was only limited to twenty or so pages, I'd do it by hand, but we're talking about hundreds of pages here.

(i'm going to go back through and rename everything eventually, but before I do that I want everything in ONE folder so I can sort and trash accordingly)

posted by damnjezebel to technology (4 comments total)

Check out this MS tutorial on batch renaming images. It doesn't look filetype-specific. Basically, you select a bunchf of files, right-click -> rename and it will batch the rest of the selection accordingly.

So if you did a search for index.html, and then within the search window, select all, right-click -> rename "index01.html" I think it should work the same way. Then re-search for index??.html (or index*.html) and move into a new folder.

I am not going to subject my own index.html's to this treatment, so no definitive verdict on whether this will work or not... good luck! (backup first, probably)
posted by misterbrandt at 2:57 PM on January 7, 2006

You can do it with Total Commander.
Press Ctrl+B to get the view of all the files in one directory, select everything, Press F5 to copy, in the copy dialog click on Options and enable the "Auto-rename target files".
Moreover, Total Commander has an excellent Multi-Rename Tool.
posted by Sharcho at 4:52 PM on January 7, 2006

Why not use a software package like TreePad or MyInfo to keep the alternative versions in one data file rather than multiple versions in multiple text files?
posted by megatherium at 6:46 PM on January 7, 2006

I second misterbrandt's suggestion. Search for index.html, select them all, right-click, rename, copy to new folder.
posted by jikel_morten at 9:21 PM on January 7, 2006