File Renamer is now available in its forth major version. Version 4.0 introduces a number of new features, but only the biggest new features will be presented in this writing.

The most inventive new feature in File Renamer 4.0 is the Intelligent renaming feature. Intelligent renaming makes File Renamer capable of automatically detecting and resolving curtain conflicts that can arise when renaming files. To understand the concept behind Intelligent renaming it is necessary to have a closer look at how the renaming process works in File Renamer.

When File Renamer is renaming a number of files it will take one file at a time rename it and then go on to rename the next file. The files are renamed one by one even though it may look like the files are renamed at the same time. In general File Renamer will rename the files in the order they appear in the file list but this approach can have some unexpected conflicts. One situation where this will happen is if a file is to be renamed to a name that another file already has, and that this file is placed later in the file list. Because of the other files position in the file list it will block the renaming of the first file. The order of the files in the file list is therefore important to prevent this type of conflict from occurring. Intelligent renaming solves this problem by rearranging the order of the files so that the conflicts are avoided. In other words there are now fewer possible problems when renaming files because File Renamer on it own can solve some of the possible problems that can arise.

One of the features that have been significantly improved in version 4.0 is insertion of increasing numbers. The increasing number feature has previously not been as flexible as it was wanted. One of the missing flexibilities was that the files in the file list always were sorted according to one of the file list columns. In the new version the user can change the order of the files. The file list can still be sorted automatically but the user has the possibility of manually rearrange the list by dragging selected files to a wanted position. In this way it is now possible for the user to define the order of the files in the file list and thereby which number the files get. Also note that the numbering of files has been changed in version 4.0 so that the files now get a number by their position in the file list and not by the order in which they are renamed. All of these improvements should make it considerably easier to get the wanted filenames when using the increasing number feature.

Ever since the birth of File Renamer the main functionality of the application has been that all files that was added to the file list was renamed in one go. This is still the standard functionality of File Renamer but from version 4.0 it is now also possible to only rename some of the files in the file list. With this functionality it is now possible to add many files to the file list in one go and thereafter use different settings to rename the files.

In File Renamer 4.0 the undo function has been extended to support multiple undoes. This means that even if a file has been renamed in several steps the user can still undo all of the changes. In earlier versions of File Renamer it was only possible to undo the last renaming of the files.

Beside the new features already mentioned the new version of File Renamer also includes a number of other improvements. These are improved customization of file list columns, context menus, coloring of renamed files, plus a number of other minor improvements and bug fixes.

In summary File Renamer version 4.0 introduces a considerable number of improvements over past versions. The basic functionality is still the same and the application should be just as easy to use as earlier versions. So an upgrade is recommended.