Having copies renamed as per old style "Copy of ..." rather than file name then copy at end?

S

StargateFan

How can we get pre Win7 naming convention for copies. Prefer all
copies together under "Copy of ..." rather than with filename. Thx.
 
C

Char Jackson

How can we get pre Win7 naming convention for copies. Prefer all
copies together under "Copy of ..." rather than with filename. Thx.
Click to expand...

The obvious way is to use your keyboard, but I suspect you're looking
for another solution that's probably more programmatic?
 
D

Dave \Crash\ Dummy

StargateFan said:
How can we get pre Win7 naming convention for copies. Prefer all
copies together under "Copy of ..." rather than with filename. Thx.
Click to expand...

This probably isn't what you want, but if you copy the file(s) to the
same directory, a new file with " - Copy" appended to the name will be
created. For example, "letter.txt" will copy as "letter - Copy.txt."

The new files are highlighted after the copy, so it is easy to move them
to another directory.
 
Z

Zaphod Beeblebrox

Dave "Crash" Dummy said:
This probably isn't what you want, but if you copy the file(s) to
the
same directory, a new file with " - Copy" appended to the name will
be
created. For example, "letter.txt" will copy as "letter - Copy.txt."

The new files are highlighted after the copy, so it is easy to move
them
to another directory.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what the OP wants to change - in Win7, " - Copy" gets
appended to the file name, so the copy sorts with the original when
the directory is sorted by name. In XP, "Copy of " gets pre-pended to
the name, so all copies sort together. I don't know of any way to
change the behavior, but I can see how some might find it preferable.
 
C

Char Jackson

That is exactly what the OP wants to change - in Win7, " - Copy" gets
appended to the file name, so the copy sorts with the original when
the directory is sorted by name. In XP, "Copy of " gets pre-pended to
the name, so all copies sort together. I don't know of any way to
change the behavior, but I can see how some might find it preferable.
Click to expand...

Just a wild shot in the dark, but there are several tweak utilities
that are able to turn the "Copy of" feature on and off in XP. I wonder
if a person could flip that setting while watching the XP Registry for
changes, then replicate the change in Win 7. Probably not, but I don't
know.
 
V

VanguardLH

Zaphod said:
Dave wrote ...


That is exactly what the OP wants to change - in Win7, " - Copy" gets
appended to the file name, so the copy sorts with the original when
the directory is sorted by name. In XP, "Copy of " gets pre-pended
to the name, so all copies sort together. I don't know of any way to
change the behavior, but I can see how some might find it preferable.
Click to expand...

If the OP is making copies and wants them all conveniently grouped
together for some following action, like moving them to a different
folder, why not just click on the Date Modified column. All the copies
would have the latest datestamp so they'd all group together.

However, the OP never stated the cause for his need for wanting "Copy"
to prepend instead of append to the filename. Yet moving "Copy" to
prepend to the filename means the copies are somewhere in the middle of
the listing instead of all grouped together at the beginning or end.
First there would be the numeric and "A" and "B" files, then the "C"
files which include the "Copy of" files, followed by the "D" through "Z"
files. The copies would be somewhere buried inside the listing instead
of grouped together at the end. Sorting on date would put all the
just-made copies together in the listing.
 
R

R. C. White

Hi, StargateFan.

As someone pointed out, you don't say WHY you need the other arrangement, or
how often your need occurs. But here is one solution that might fit:

In a Command Prompt window, use the Dir command with wildcards (and
quotation marks because of the spaces in the filenames):
dir "* - Copy*"

Add other switches as needed (type dir /? for a list of all switches and
parameters), such as:
C:>dir "e:\somefolder\* - Copy*"


Combine this with renaming commands, in a batch file perhaps, to change the
names. Example for a single filename:
ren "letter - Copy.txt" "Copy of letter.txt"

Or for a series of files, such as letter1, letter2, etc.:
ren "letter? - Copy.txt" "Copy of letter?.txt"

Since I never use Copy'n'Paste in this way to copy files, I don't know if
this would work. Please test it (on sample files, of course) and let us
know what happens.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
[email protected]
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"StargateFan" wrote in message

How can we get pre Win7 naming convention for copies. Prefer all
copies together under "Copy of ..." rather than with filename. Thx.
 
R

richard

Hi, StargateFan.

As someone pointed out, you don't say WHY you need the other arrangement, or
how often your need occurs. But here is one solution that might fit:

In a Command Prompt window, use the Dir command with wildcards (and
quotation marks because of the spaces in the filenames):
dir "* - Copy*"

Add other switches as needed (type dir /? for a list of all switches and
parameters), such as:
C:>dir "e:\somefolder\* - Copy*"


Combine this with renaming commands, in a batch file perhaps, to change the
names. Example for a single filename:
ren "letter - Copy.txt" "Copy of letter.txt"

Or for a series of files, such as letter1, letter2, etc.:
ren "letter? - Copy.txt" "Copy of letter?.txt"

Since I never use Copy'n'Paste in this way to copy files, I don't know if
this would work. Please test it (on sample files, of course) and let us
know what happens.

RC
Click to expand...

Brilliant answer.
Gee dude, I've never jumped out of a plane without a parachute.
Would you mind doing that for us and tell us what happened?
Or, try diving into a pool from the top of the stratosphere.

Your brilliant answer is only a method to fix what has been done.
It will not change the future use of how copied files are renamed.
 
M

mick

How can we get pre Win7 naming convention for copies. Prefer all
copies together under "Copy of ..." rather than with filename. Thx.
Click to expand...

Having read all the replies, no one has mentioned using a 3rd party
file manager.
I use Directory Opus and it will do exactly what you want and a
thousand other ways of handling files.
There are free alternatives such as xplorer², freecommander,
totalcommander etc., I am sure these would also do as you require.
 
G

Gene E. Bloch

Hi, StargateFan.

As someone pointed out, you don't say WHY you need the other arrangement, or
how often your need occurs. But here is one solution that might fit:

In a Command Prompt window, use the Dir command with wildcards (and
quotation marks because of the spaces in the filenames):
dir "* - Copy*"

Add other switches as needed (type dir /? for a list of all switches and
parameters), such as:
C:>dir "e:\somefolder\* - Copy*"

Combine this with renaming commands, in a batch file perhaps, to change the
names. Example for a single filename:
ren "letter - Copy.txt" "Copy of letter.txt"

Or for a series of files, such as letter1, letter2, etc.:
ren "letter? - Copy.txt" "Copy of letter?.txt"

Since I never use Copy'n'Paste in this way to copy files, I don't know if
this would work. Please test it (on sample files, of course) and let us
know what happens.

RC
Click to expand...

This is when you need a Unix shell or one of the scripting languages,
where you can assign the original part of the name (what matches the *)
to a variable and rename the file to "Copy of <variable>". That's pure
fun!

I do think the OP said why he wanted this in his original post:
"Prefer all copies together under "Copy of ..." rather than with
filename"

BTW, OP: would it help if you placed all the copies in a new folder
instead of in the original folder? They'd all be isolated there ready
for further processing, and could be moved back later.
 
D

Dave \Crash\ Dummy

VanguardLH said:
If the OP is making copies and wants them all conveniently grouped
together for some following action, like moving them to a different
folder, why not just click on the Date Modified column. All the copies
would have the latest datestamp so they'd all group together.
Click to expand...

You'd have to use the Date Created parameter.
 
D

Dave \Crash\ Dummy

StargateFan said:
How can we get pre Win7 naming convention for copies. Prefer all
copies together under "Copy of ..." rather than with filename. Thx.
Click to expand...

Until something better comes along, the script below will rename all
"filename - Copy.ext" files in a folder to "Copy of filename.ext." Just
put the script in the folder containing the " - Copy" files and doubleclick
on it. Move or delete the script when it has done its work.

;==================copyof.vbs=======================
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set f = fso.GetFolder(".")

for each file in f.files
if instr(file.name," - Copy") then
newname=replace(file.name," - Copy","")
newname="Copy of " & newname
file.move f.path & "\" & newname
end if
next
;=================================================
 
E

Ed Cryer

How can we get pre Win7 naming convention for copies. Prefer all
copies together under "Copy of ..." rather than with filename. Thx.
Click to expand...

Aaagghh! While checking this out I came across a problem I used to have
with XP, but had forgotten about. It's just the same with Win7, so a
word of warning to the innocent.

In a folder of, eg, photos, you can hold down ctrl and select individual
ones with the mouse left key, BUT (aaagghh!) if you shake one just a
tiny bit then you get copies of all those highlighted.

I once did a check over an old file-sharing system (Napster, I think)
for multiple copies; and I found a version (17), as well as lots of
(11), (12) etc. That suggested that there must be lots of HDs belonging
to silver surfers with shaky hands.

Ed
 
C

Char Jackson

Aaagghh! While checking this out I came across a problem I used to have
with XP, but had forgotten about. It's just the same with Win7, so a
word of warning to the innocent.

In a folder of, eg, photos, you can hold down ctrl and select individual
ones with the mouse left key, BUT (aaagghh!) if you shake one just a
tiny bit then you get copies of all those highlighted.

I once did a check over an old file-sharing system (Napster, I think)
for multiple copies; and I found a version (17), as well as lots of
(11), (12) etc. That suggested that there must be lots of HDs belonging
to silver surfers with shaky hands.

Ed
Click to expand...

When you talk about shaky hands, there's a dirty "retirement center"
joke that comes to mind, but this ain't the place to tell it. ;-)
 
E

Ed Cryer

When you talk about shaky hands, there's a dirty "retirement center"
joke that comes to mind, but this ain't the place to tell it. ;-)
Click to expand...

I've never heard of "retirement center" (nor even "centre") but I think
I get the innuendo. That's one that works either side of the Pond.

Ed
 
E

Ed Cryer

Aaagghh! While checking this out I came across a problem I used to have
with XP, but had forgotten about. It's just the same with Win7, so a
word of warning to the innocent.

In a folder of, eg, photos, you can hold down ctrl and select individual
ones with the mouse left key, BUT (aaagghh!) if you shake one just a
tiny bit then you get copies of all those highlighted.

I once did a check over an old file-sharing system (Napster, I think)
for multiple copies; and I found a version (17), as well as lots of
(11), (12) etc. That suggested that there must be lots of HDs belonging
to silver surfers with shaky hands.

Ed
Click to expand...

And more. When you take a copy of a copy, the name ends in "Copy -
Copy"; and of that "Copy - Copy - Copy" etc.

If, on the other hand, you take a second copy of the original, then it
gets named "xxx - Copy(2)"; and a copy of that "xxx - Copy(2) - Copy".

It seems natural to assume that you could get "xxx - Copy(17) - Copy (5)
- Copy"; and so on ad aliquod infinitum ultra meum somnium pessimum.

Ed
 
G

Gene E. Bloch

And more. When you take a copy of a copy, the name ends in "Copy -
Copy"; and of that "Copy - Copy - Copy" etc.

If, on the other hand, you take a second copy of the original, then it
gets named "xxx - Copy(2)"; and a copy of that "xxx - Copy(2) - Copy".

It seems natural to assume that you could get "xxx - Copy(17) - Copy (5)
- Copy"; and so on ad aliquod infinitum ultra meum somnium pessimum.

Ed
Click to expand...

Nah, at some point in the process, Windows would reject the name as too
long, so your dreams should remain relatively undisturbed :)

But I really love your idea - my best laugh so far today.
 
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