Programs needed

 

1. DirectoryList & Print, or DLP for short
2. Word processing program, we will use Notepad
3. Text2Folders
4. Renamer

 

 

Configuring DirectoryList & Print 

1. Open DLP in the folder
2. Make sure the configuration is as follows
   
   
   Then you should only see the filenames without their extensions, because they will become folders soon.  Copy this directly from the application like so by pressing Ctrl+C
3. 
   
   

Using Find and Replace in Notepad

1. Open Notepad and paste the text from the clipboard.  Note that the text needs to be free of tabs and I have a nice way to do this.
   
   
    
2. The method that I used was selecting
   
   
    
   • The image displays the user highlighting the tab space, copying/pasting into the Find what input box.
   • The Replace with box should remain blank.
   • Press Replace All button
   • Voila, the tabs are gone and it is formatted properly for Text2Folders later
   • 
     The format is correct, so save it with an easy name, in order to input into Text2Folders.

Using Text2Folders

1. Open Text2Folders (If you do not have this program, you can download it from here)
2. Click on the box that says Root Folder, this will be the folder that you want to create the folders.
   
   
   Select the button with the dots and choose a folder
   
   
   I chose a folder on my desktop called Hierarchies.
3. Click on the box that says Text file, this will be the text file we just created, that contains the text to be converted to folders.
   
   As you can see, I placed the text file into a folder called Jitbit Macro Recorder Macros, this way it doesn't matter what I name the text file, we can rename it to whatever the folder is called.
   
   
   Press Create folders button when you are ready to initiate the folder creation.
   
   
   If you followed all the steps, you will see a similar screen.  However, the brackets became underscores, which is why we need the next program called Renamer.

Using Renamer

1. Open Renamer, if you don't have this program download it here
2. Once the program is open, configure it to manipulate folders by selecting filters from settings.

Find Filters by selecting Settings > Filters
Unfortunately, Renamer doesn't have this selected by default, so you have to manually configure it.  You can also check Include subfolders, then press Save button.
Open All Settings to configure all settings, including the filter settings, we configured earlier.
Check Remember sorting options checkbox.
Check Auto size table on change, Auto preview on change of rules configurations and Validate new filenames on preview.
Check Display message on successful rename and Clear renamed files on rename. 
Check Meta Tag support and choose a Date Format that is similar to this one.  Find out how on page 8 of the Renamer User Manual.
These next few are meant to ease in the process of renaming files, but I would say these are for Power Users, seeing as they modify the context menu.  Don't select Add to folders context menu and Add to Send to context menu unless you know what you are doing.

As I mentioned earlier, the brackets are changed to underscores during the Text2Folders conversion and that is why we need to convert them back to brackets.  I figured out how to do this in Renamer:

 
 Do this by clicking the Add button, just below where it says Add Files.  This will bring up the rules dialog, which allows you to add conditions to follow when renaming your files and folders. 

First Rule        

1. Select Replace from the list on the left
2. Add an underscore in the Find box
3. Add a left bracket in the Replace box
4. Select the radio button that says First, which will only replace the first occurence
5. Default, the Skip extension checkbox should be checked, but if it isn't, then check it
6. Press Add Rule button

If you have done it successfully, the rule should appear like this

Second Rule

 

1. Select Replace from the list on the left
2. Add an underscore in the Find box
3. Add a right bracket in the Replace box
4. Select the radio button that says Last, which will replace the last occurence
5. As in the first rule, the Skip extension checkbox should already be checked
6. Press Add Rule button

If you have done it successfully, the rules should appear like this

If done successfully, the folders will now contain brackets

As I also mentioned earlier, the hierarchy of.txt file can be renamed if the folder is the name of a program, with the right rules added, it will work out nicely.  Here is that process.

1. Select Insert from the list on the left
2. Click on the lightning bolt called Insert Meta Tag
3. Select File_FolderName from the list in the Meta Tags window
4. Press Insert button (The one with the green checkmark)
5. Add a space before the Meta Tag that was inserted
6. Select the radio button that says Suffix, which will place the Meta Tag before the file extension, but after the text in the filename/foldername
7. Blah Blah Skip extension, Blah Blah
8. Press Add Rule button
9. This will change the file from Hierarchy of.txt to Hierarchy of FolderName.txt

I briefly mentioned this earlier as well, but I didn't really elaborate.  Say you have a file that you want to completely its filename and want to rename it to the folder it is in.  Well here is how you do that.

1. Select Delete from the list on the left
2. Select the radio button that says Position, which will start deleting text at a specified position.  I have selected 1 in the box next to it
3. Select the radio button that says Till the end, which will delete text until the end
4. Skip extension again, read other steps with skip extension, really don't want to write it again
5. Press Save Rule button
6. Select Insert from the list on the left
7. Click on the lightning bolt called Insert Meta Tag
8. Select File_FolderName from the list in the Meta Tags window
9. Press Insert button (The one with the green checkmark)
10. Unlike the earlier rule, do not put a space before the File_FolderName Meta Tag
11. Select the radio button that says Prefix, which will place the Meta Tag before the text in the filename/foldername, but since the first rule deletes the text, it just completely renames the file to the the name of the folder it is in

If done successfully, this is the screen you should see

 This helps out tremendously.

 Now to rename my images that I uploaded, so they are not cryptic filenames.