This year I was thinking of putting the Styles of Pierke-Musen 8  in alphabetical order. As there are over 2000 of them listed in numerical order it is a mammoth task. I am unfamiliar with the myriad things that proficient computer  people can do ,I thought that I would ask  "if by touching a button on my Windows 10 laptop the job could be done in two seconds flat."

I hesitate  to post this question , but in the past many, many times I have spent hours on my lap top  jury rigging,using a crude improvised method  only to later be shown that at the touch of a button the desired outcome could be achieved.

on the first column at top of screen should say name press that and will sort alphabetically

I guess the filenames start with digits and that you want to remove those digits. You can do this in 2 seconds with the Total Commander program (Guets are not allowed to view links. In order to access the links, please Register or Login):
- select the files you want to rename (ctrl-A to select all files in current directory)
- select in the menu: Files – Multi Rename Tool
- Tick the box "RegEx" (this means the search function will support "regular expressions")
- In the "Search for" box enter "\d" (regular expression for digits)
- Click "Start" to rename the files (all leading digits will be removed)

Have a look at Bulk Rename Utility, it's a great program for renaming files.

Quote from: Whitecolin11 on Jan 01, 2025, 12:43 AMon the first column at top of screen should say name press that and will sort alphabetically

Quote from: Whitecolin11 on Jan 01, 2025, 12:43 AMon the first column at top of screen should say name press that and will sort alphabetically

Thanks, Colin. I tried doing as you suggested but I cannot find name at the top of my screen. I am on Windows 10. Any more hints you can give me? Thanks John.

Quote from: YammyFan on Jan 02, 2025, 12:55 AMThanks, Colin. I tried doing as you suggested but I cannot find name at the top of my screen. I am on Windows 10. Any more hints you can give me? Thanks John.

You're looking for the word "Name" at the top of the screen (not your name). If you can't find it, you're using the wrong program.

Cheers,
Fred

Thanks, Fred. I am using File Explorer on  Windows . I am wondering if there is some other program I need to install on my laptop.

In File Explorer, you can also configure the sorting in the menu: File - Sort by - Name. But if the filenames start with numbers, the alphabetical order will be based on these numbers and not the text that comes after the numbers. In this case, you have to remove the numbers as explained in my previous post.

Johan

Thanks for your help Johan. I'm working on it. I have high hopes. You are very patient. John.

Fortunately, Pierke Music has formatted the file names well. They're always 4 digits, a space, then the song name, ending in .sty.

The following DOS command will remove, for all files in the folder, the leading number and space, leaving only the song name:

Ren "???? *.sty" "/////*.sty"

If you're unfamiliar with executing DOS Commands, perhaps a friend can help you. Or, if you can upload the files to a sharing service, one of us will be happy to rename them for you.

Cheers,
Fred

QuoteThey're always 4 digits, a space, then the song name, ending in .sty.

With the (free) Guets are not allowed to view links. In order to access the links, please Register or Login program I mentioned it would be a quick job to remove the numbers.

In the program navigate to the folder with the files (make a backup if you are concerned)
You will see a section (5) called Remove, this is what will help you, where it says First n, use the up/down arrows to read 5 or type in 5.
note: Alternately you could type in 4 and put a tick in the Trim box at the bottom, trim will remove that first space for you.
Notice at the right side of the section (5) heading there is a tick box, the section is not active unless there is a tick in this box. The R removes the tick, turning it off.

Now Select All files in the New Name area and you will see a preview of the new names. Check to make sure all is as you want it. No renaming will happen until you click the Rename button at the bottom right, and you will get an 'are you sure' message to confirm. Click Rename and it's done.

Quote from: aprilla on Jan 06, 2025, 02:26 AM

QuoteThey're always 4 digits, a space, then the song name, ending in .sty.

With the (free) Guets are not allowed to view links. In order to access the links, please Register or Login program I mentioned it would be a quick job to remove the numbers.

In the program navigate to the folder with the files (make a backup if you are concerned)
You will see a section (5) called Remove, this is what will help you, where it says First n, use the up/down arrows to read 5 or type in 5.
note: Alternately you could type in 4 and put a tick in the Trim box at the bottom, trim will remove that first space for you.
Notice at the right side of the section (5) heading there is a tick box, the section is not active unless there is a tick in this box. The R removes the tick, turning it off.

Now Select All files in the New Name area and you will see a preview of the new names. Check to make sure all is as you want it. No renaming will happen until you click the Rename button at the bottom right, and you will get an 'are you sure' message to confirm. Click Rename and it's done.

Thank you aprilla for all your very clear directions.  All is going well but I cannot find the NEW NAME AREA

Quote from: YammyFan on Jan 08, 2025, 05:10 AM

Quote from: aprilla on Jan 06, 2025, 02:26 AM

QuoteThey're always 4 digits, a space, then the song name, ending in .sty.

With the (free) Guets are not allowed to view links. In order to access the links, please Register or Login program I mentioned it would be a quick job to remove the numbers.

In the program navigate to the folder with the files (make a backup if you are concerned)
You will see a section (5) called Remove, this is what will help you, where it says First n, use the up/down arrows to read 5 or type in 5.
note: Alternately you could type in 4 and put a tick in the Trim box at the bottom, trim will remove that first space for you.
Notice at the right side of the section (5) heading there is a tick box, the section is not active unless there is a tick in this box. The R removes the tick, turning it off.

Now Select All files in the New Name area and you will see a preview of the new names. Check to make sure all is as you want it. No renaming will happen until you click the Rename button at the bottom right, and you will get an 'are you sure' message to confirm. Click Rename and it's done.

Thank you aprilla for all your very clear directions.  All is going well but I cannot find the NEW NAME AREA

Near the top of the program screen, at the left you have your directory tree where you select the folder of files you want to rename (it has a light blue background on my computer).

When you've selected a folder here, you can then see the list of files in it shown at the right (this area has a white background on my computer).

There are two columns in this right area, each column has a title at the top. The first column is titled Name and this is where the actual filenames are shown. The second column is titled New Name and it shows a preview of how the new name will look as you make your choices in the lower part.  At first the names are identical, they only change in the New Name column once you've made some changes in the lower area and selected the files to be renamed..

New Name is a preview area only, changes don't actually happen until you click the Rename button and accept the 'are you sure' message. I recommend never getting rid of the 'are you sure' option. In the New Name area you can 'select all' to rename all the files or select just one for renaming, or several. Some experimenting will get you used to using it.

There is also a Preview button down at the bottom right (beside the Rename button).

Once you have renamed the files, the new names will be shown in the Name column.

It's a good program, especially for 100s or 1000s of files like we deal with! Worth persevering with (it took me a while), ask any questions... I'm not an expert but will try to help.

p.s. There is an Undo option in the Actions Menu, you'll find it at the bottom of the list, or use Ctrl+Z.

With Bulk Rename, I converted the FFFF file from Pierke Musen to alphanumeric format.

I will create two files. One file with only Dutch songstyles and a second with the remaining songstyles.

If permitted, I will upload both files to Google Drive at a later time.

Henk