Alternative approach

[hjrb]

A long time ago I also did an small tool for renaming files. I also thought about implementing some sophisticated search and replace. But then it came to my mind that 1.) there is always too many exceptions and using rules is too unhandy 2.) a good text editor already has all these sophisticated features already build in
1.) So my idea: take the list of selected files or all files from Windows Explorer
2.) Open an UI with a powerful text editor, e.g. the Avalon editor control is great!
3.) Each file name is one line. Can't add lines or delete lines
4.) Edit the file names using the editor and all the power of a great editor.
5.) When saving apply the new file names.
That would turn out much more useful.
6.) Prio B: implement a file preview pane. When selecting a file name show a preview of the file. This is espacially useful when changing the automatically created names of images from a camera.

[themisir]

I created an app that does exactly what you write. Here's link to the source code: TheMisir/power-rn.

[enricogior]

@hjrb
duplicate of #3454
Feel free to add you comments there.
Thanks.