Drag-and-drop files from your desktop’s file manager into the Bulk Rename window to start renaming them.
Install Thunar on another desktop environment to get a “Bulk Rename” tool you can launch directly from your Linux desktop’s applications menu. We do like Thunar’s Bulk Rename tool, even on GNOME and Unity desktops.
On other desktop environments, you can head to your Linux distribution’s software management program and install a bulk-rename tool. The preview of how each file’s name will look afterwards helps you experiment safely, so you can see exactly what its functions will do. Thunar’s interface is powerful, but it’s also fairly simple to understand. This tool can do everything from renaming files based on their audio tags, inserting a date and time, numbering files, performing a search and replace, making text uppercase or lowercase, inserting or deleting characters at a specific position in the file name, and so on. To access it, select some files in Thunar, right-click them, and click Rename. The Xfce desktop and its Thunar file manager has an easy-to-use, powerful bulk rename tool built into it. For example, if you enter Photo # From My Vacation.jpg, you’ll get files named “Photo 1 From My Vacation.jpg,” “Photo 2 From My Vacation.jpg,” and so on. The # symbol will be replaced by a sequential number for each file name. Enter a base name for the files, including the # symbol somewhere in it. Select multiple files, right-click them, and select Rename or press F2. It works like the batch rename feature on Windows. If you’re using a KDE desktop, the standard Dolphin file manager does have this integrated. Some Linux desktop environments come with an integrated batch-renaming tool, and some don’t. The Nautilus file manager used by Ubuntu’s Unity desktop and GNOME doesn’t have this feature built-in. RELATED: Linux Users Have a Choice: 8 Linux Desktop Environments You’ll see a preview of the resulting file name appear below the Rename dialog, so you can see exactly how the files will be named. This may sound a bit complicated, but it’s not too bad. You could also use the file’s associated date instead of a number. The number or date can appear before or after the base name. This works similar to the equivalent renaming feature on Windows. You can “format” file names, using a base name and a number.
Enter text you want to find and the text you want to replace it with.
Mac OS X’s Finder gained its own batch-rename function in version 10.10 Yosemite. (Be extremely careful when downloading and running such third-party software, as there’s a good chance you could end up with adware or malware.) More advanced operations will need Command Prompt commands, PowerShell cmdlets, or third-party bulk-renaming tools. This will give all those files a much more logical name, grouping them together. The files will be renamed as My Vacation (1), My Vacation (2), and so on. Type a new “base name” for the files, such as My Vacation, and press Enter. When you’re ready, right-click a file in the list and select Rename - or just press F2.
RELATED: How to Batch Rename Multiple Files in Windows
Press Ctrl+A to select a folder full of files, use the mouse cursor to select a group, or hold Ctrl as you click to select and de-select files. For basic batch-renaming, begin by selecting several files in Windows Explorer or File Explorer.
We’ve already covered the many ways to batch-rename files on Windows. RELATED: The Best Alternative File Managers for Windows, Mac, and Linux