Sigil Rename Command

[taneal1]

Using the Search function I can't find anything even remotely close to answering this question...

The book I am editing has 100+ image files [located in the "IMAGES" folder] in the following format:
Pict_statesecret_ch2_castroandcubela.jpg
Pict_statesecret_ch2_cuba.jpg

What I'd like to do is remove the "Pict_statesecret_" from the filename while leaving the "ch2_XXXXXX.jpg" in place, using the "RENAME" command.

Is this possible?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Tom

[DiapDealer]

The only mass-renaming feature Sigil has requires you to set a base name and a starting position. You accomplish this by selecting the multiple files in Sigil's Book Browser and then right-clicking and selecting "Rename" from the context menu. You'll then be presented with dialog to choose the start name. If you enter image0001. all files will be renamed starting with 0001 and increasing from there (the existing extensions will be preserved). Mousing over the label on the dialog box will give you tips of how the mass renaming works.

But as far as what you want to do ... I'm afraid the answer is no. Sigil has no mass rename functionality which will allow you to delete only the prefix from a group of similarly named files.

[Springbok]

Slightly different question but more less on the same subject. I use the mass rename of filenames often and for me the current sigil functionality is not perfect but quite sufficient. However I haven't found a way to do the same for file extension (eg. make a bulk rename of html into xhtml while the filenames remain unchanged). Is there a way to do it?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Springbok

Slightly different question but more less on the same subject. I use the mass rename of filenames often and for me the current sigil functionality is not perfect but quite sufficient. However I haven't found a way to do the same for file extension (eg. make a bulk rename of html into xhtml while the filenames remain unchanged). Is there a way to do it?

Simply select all files, right-click and enter .xhtml.

[Springbok]

Thanks Doitsu. Indeed, it is so simple that I feel silly I haven't found the answer myself. I have tried *.xtml approach earlier but that didn't work.

[CalibUser]

I hope this reply is not going beyond the scope of this forum: If you want to rename the filenames themselves before they are imported into Sigil then you can use a piece of free software called Advanced Renamer. This is available from https://www.advancedrenamer.com/. Use this to rename your files, then when the images are imported into Sigil the names of the images in Sigil will match those of your external filenames.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by CalibUser

I hope this reply is not going beyond the scope of this forum: If you want to rename the filenames themselves before they are imported into Sigil then you can use a piece of free software called Advanced Renamer. This is available from https://www.advancedrenamer.com/. Use this to rename your files, then when the images are imported into Sigil the names of the images in Sigil will match those of your external filenames.

Are you sure this wont break ALL the linkages inside the HTML code
When you use Sigils rename, it adjusts ALL references (usage) in the book, to match the new name

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by theducks

Are you sure this wont break ALL the linkages inside the HTML code
When you use Sigils rename, it adjusts ALL references (usage) in the book, to match the new name

Originally Posted by CalibUser

... If you want to rename the filenames themselves before they are imported into Sigil then...

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by theducks

Are you sure this wont break ALL the linkages inside the HTML code
When you use Sigils rename, it adjusts ALL references (usage) in the book, to match the new name

Doing this to already imported images does break all the links. The one time I did this, I extracted the image files, renamed and re-injected them. I then used regex to do a search and replace on the old file names and replace them with the new file name on "all files" plus "current file" for content.opf. It was a bit easier than manually renaming 300 image files.

Something like (using the filename segment from taneal1):

search Pict_statesecret_(.*?)\.jpg
replace: \1.jpg

OTOH, the suggestion was doing this before importing files which is a bit hard when the files already exist in the epub.

OYAH, in future, I'm going to avoid this type of task. I wasn't the author who added the entire flipping path to the original image directory on his computer as part of the filename.

[CalibUser]

Originally Posted by theducks

Are you sure this wont break ALL the linkages inside the HTML code
When you use Sigils rename, it adjusts ALL references (usage) in the book, to match the new name

Just to clarify: You need to use Advance Rename before importing the files into Sigil. Then the names of the images in Sigil and the names of the external files will match. You can then set up the html linkages for the images.

If you import the images and set up the html links to them, then use Advance Renamer to change the names of the external files and import these renamed files into Sigil, then you will lose your html links to the images.

I hope this clarifies the issue raised.