Easier Way to Rename Lots of Files with Unknown Characters

[SkyFrontier]

Similar to "character to replace invalid characters in dropped messages", right click a bunch of files, "rename special>search and replace", "option to rename all invalid (given/previously set on F9>Templates) characters in this batch".
Or a script that could write entries into an .ini file so in a renaming session it would be just a matter of editing what will be replaced with which.
Any ideas, please...?

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Σ/_;ç/c;á/a;?/_;ã/_;<all unknown/non specified>/_;(/_;)/_;

and so on - all in a single operation.

Reason: a given folder contains samples of documents not supported under Non-ANSI and/or Non-UTF compliant programs, so I'd like to eliminate all the annoyances in a heartbeat, having previously saved their original names in an .rtf file for the record.

Thanks.

[SkyFrontier]

Desired enhancement would be the ability to detect whether the file is lower/upper case and keep that way, despite only having lower OR upper case as search patterns.

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search pattern: é/e

Renaming files:
México > Mexico
SOCIÉTÉ > SOCIETE

[admin]

Have you seen this syntax in Search an Replace:

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äöü>>aou  =  replace all ä with a, ö with o, ü with u

[SkyFrontier]

Option to ignore htm/html/url extensions (user defined...) would also be useful. HTM(L) files tend to get screwed when renamed.

[SkyFrontier]

Admin:
Have you seen this syntax in Search an Replace:
Code:
äöü>>aou = replace all ä with a, ö with o, ü with u

Not on right click menu. Looking for it anywhere now (in a hurry, sorry).
Thnx.

[SkyFrontier]

Have you seen this syntax in Search an Replace:
Code:
äöü>>aou = replace all ä with a, ö with o, ü with u

...prior to your post, just found "Unicode to UTF-8", which I fear to test on a whole bunch of files I'm getting ready to backup on optical drives. Would that work fawlessly, I mean - keeping chars in ways you pointed above?
(still haven't found a way other than File/Rename Special/Remove Particular Characters..., which by its wording will KEEP and not REPLACE files in a user specified pattern).

-when a name collision is found, could we have option to enter a name besides the current keep/cancel format...?

[admin]

Have you seen this syntax in Search an Replace:
Code:
äöü>>aou = replace all ä with a, ö with o, ü with u

...prior to your post, just found "Unicode to UTF-8", which I fear to test on a whole bunch of files I'm getting ready to backup on optical drives. Would that work fawlessly, I mean - keeping chars in ways you pointed above?
(still haven't found a way other than File/Rename Special/Remove Particular Characters..., which by its wording will KEEP and not REPLACE files in a user specified pattern).

-when a name collision is found, could we have option to enter a name besides the current keep/cancel format...?

No.

You enter a pattern like äöü>>aou into Search and Replace.

Fear: You can preview the results by checking "Preview All" on the bottom of the rename special sub menu. And there's undo...

[SkyFrontier]

Will try all later, considering

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Desired enhancement would be the ability to detect whether the file is lower/upper case and keep that way, despite only having lower OR upper case as search patterns.

Code:
search pattern: é/e

Renaming files:
México > Mexico
SOCIÉTÉ > SOCIETE

Any word on...

-when a name collision is found, could we have option to enter a name besides the current keep/cancel format...?

?
That would be the equivalent thing to new ability "create new folders on the fly" regarding renaming, in my opinion.
Thank you, Don!

[Stefan]

Desired enhancement would be the ability to detect whether the file is lower/upper case and keep that way, despite only having lower OR upper case as search patterns.

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search pattern: é/e

Renaming files:
México > Mexico
SOCIÉTÉ > SOCIETE

Maybe you can collect an list of such diacritical signs
and create an script like that:

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$curname = "México - SOCIÉTÉ";
 //$curname = replace( $curname, "find", "replace", case sensitive);
   $curname = replace( $curname, "é", "e", 1);
   $curname = replace( $curname, "É", "E", 1);
   msg $curname;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic

Or find an command line tool to call from an script for each file name.

[SkyFrontier]

Using the pattern:

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ñáàâéèêíìîóòôúùûç[]{}()&>>naaaeeeiiiooouuuc______and

OR

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ñáàâéèêíìîóòôúùûç[]{}()&>>naaaeeeiiiooouuuc&&&&&&and

gives a message that "(lists) must have the same lenght."

USING THIS PATTERN:

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ñáàâãéèêíìîóòôõúùûç.,[]{}()>>naaaaeeeiiioooouuuc________

went fine.

Problem was with the "&" character, which I wanted to replace with "and".
Workaround: do a second search & replace just for that.

Portuguese users, go ahead with that small piece of code!

Regarding your comment, Stefan (thanks!), I intended to search and replace only the letters "é" for "e" and "É" for "E" (case sensitive, yes!), but not one word for another ("México - SOCIÉTÉ").

But your point gave me a hint, so later I'll try to study scripting based on your writing and find a solution.

-but I really think that an "auto-replacing" function would be great (possibly "Unicode to UTF-8", haven't tried it yet!). And I try to preserve XY as small and 3rd-party free as possible - portability reasons.
Thanks again!

edit: Edited pattern to include "ã/õ". Changed font for the records (easier to distinguish as an ANSWER).

[SkyFrontier]

Hmmmm...
what about being able to do something like

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ñáàâãéèêíìîóòôõúùûç.,[]{}()"&">>naaaaeeeiiioooouuuc________"and"

?
Unicode to UTF is NOT an answer:

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Folha de SP - Cozinha país a país - Itália.pdf
Folha de SP - Cozinha país a país - França.pdf
Folha de SP - Cozinha país a país - Tailândia.pdf

turned into

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Folha de SP - Cozinha país a país - Itália.pdf
Folha de SP - Cozinha país a país - França.pdf
Folha de SP - Cozinha país a país - Tailândia.pdf

.
UTF to Unicode:

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Folha de SP - Cozinha pas a pas - Itlia.pdf
Folha de SP - Cozinha pas a pas - Frana.pdf
Folha de SP - Cozinha pas a pas - Tailndia.pdf

Should be

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Folha de SP - Cozinha pais a pais - Italia.pdf
Folha de SP - Cozinha pais a pais - Franca.pdf
Folha de SP - Cozinha pais a pais - Tailandia.pdf

.

[SkyFrontier]

...am I missing (another) something or I really can't put the
äöü>>aou
search/replace pattern in a script?

http://88.191.26.34/XYwiki/index.php/Sc ... nd:_rename
tells me that I can

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Defines the mode for the rename operation :
    * b : [Default] Batch Rename
    * r : RegExp Rename
    * s : Search and Replace
    * k : Keep Particular Characters
    * e : Set Extension 

...but can't find a way to, example:

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rename s, ñáàâãéèêíìîóòôõúùûç.,[]{}()>>naaaaeeeiiioooouuuc________, <curitem>

or

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::rename s, ñáàâãéèêíìîóòôõúùûç.,[]{}()>>naaaaeeeiiioooouuuc________, "*"

.

[SkyFrontier]

Renaming by <empty> (deleting a given letter/word) would also make things easier:

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ñáàâã"and">>naaaa""

.

All of this would cover a wide range of renaming once and for all, I believe.

[Muroph]

...am I missing (another) something or I really can't put the
äöü>>aou
search/replace pattern in a script?
(...)

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rename s, ñáàâãéèêíìîóòôõúùûç.,[]{}()>>naaaaeeeiiioooouuuc________, <curitem>

you need to quote the parameters.
this will rename all selected items:

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rename s, "ñáàâãéèêíìîóòôõúùûç.,[]{}()>>naaaaeeeiiioooouuuc________", "<get SelectedItemsPathNames |>"

[admin]

If there's a demand I can add the possibility to replace many chars of different lengths. But the patterns will look a bit clumsy since we need to have a separator. We could use ">>>" to mark this from of syntax, e.g.:

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ä|ö|ü>>>ae|oe|ue