This is a much more flexible method of renaming a file from the tag
contents.
A special format pattern is used to describe the rule to be used
for the rename. The popup menu button can be used to select a
predefined format pattern, or the user can enter and edit their own
format patterns by typing into the writable field. The Add button
will add the format currently displayed to the predefined list
accessible from the menu button. The Delete button will remove the
currently displayed pattern from the predefined list. Patterns can
also be added or deleted from the main tag display window if
preferred.
The tag frames to be included in the new filename are inserted in the
format pattern using identifier tokens. A frame identifier token
starts with the % character, followed by a character that identifies
the particular frame to be used. Frames currently allowed are as
follows:
- %# - inserts the track number
- %## - inserts the track number with a leading zero if less than 10
- %1 - inserts the track title
- %a - inserts the artist name
- %e - inserts the file extension, i.e. /mp3
- %g - inserts the genre
- %t - inserts the CD/album title
- %y - inserts the year
If any of the frames are found to be blank when the rename occurs, the
file will NOT be renamed, but a warning will be issued.
In addition to these identifier tokens, all other alphanumerics
(characters or numbers) can be used in the format pattern, and they
will be included as is. Most other non-alphanumerics, for example
hyphens, parentheses, spaces, etc. can also be included. Excluded are
those with special significance to the filer, e.g. ':' or '$' (but see
below for '.' and '^'). To illustrate this, including in the format
pattern %y would insert the year, e.g. 1997, (%y) would result in
the year being enclosed in round brackets as (1997), while [%y] would
result in square brackets around the year as [1997]. Spaces would be
converted to 'hard spaces' or underscore, depending on the setting of
the Hard spaces option (see below).
It is also possible to include the . (point) character, which will
assume its normal meaning under RISC OS filing systems, i.e. it will
denote a directory separator. Thus you can rename the files into
subdirectories, with ID3TagEd automatically creating them if they do
not already exist.
The format pattern %a - %1 %e would result
in the track being renamed to (e.g.)
Frank Sinatra - All The Way /mp3
Note the inclusion of the spaces around the hyphen and before the
extension.
The format pattern %a.%t.%#-%1%e would result in a track
renamed as (e.g.)
Frank Sinatra.His Greatest Hits.5-All The Way/mp3
with the directory Frank Sinatra being created within the
original directory, and the subdirectory His Greatest Hits
being created within the Frank Sinatra directory.
Important - the directory structure is created within the
directory the file was originally in - you cannot specify complete
paths. However, you can include the ^ character, which under
RISC OS means go up a directory. Thus you could specify the format
pattern as ^.%a.%t.%#-%1%e, which would create the
directory Frank Sinatra one level up from your working
directory.
In addition, ID3TagEd does do some rudimentary checking of the current
path for the existence of the directory structure it is being asked to
create. For example, if the advanced rename rules would create the
directory structure artist.album.newfilename, and the
original file is already in a path ending .artist.album, then
it will be renamed in situ. If the oldfile is in a directory
artist, then only the album directory will be created.