Rename Files by Pattern Online

Pattern rules work best when the part to change has a consistent boundary. You might remove a repeated export code at the beginning, replace spaces and underscores with one separator, or capture a date and move it into a clearer order. Start with literal find-and-replace when it solves the job; use regular expressions only when the filenames genuinely contain variable text.

For regex work, test anchors, groups, and optional matches against different examples from the set. A pattern that looks correct for one filename can consume too much text in another. Add the regex as a single operation, read every preview result, and only then add capitalization or numbering. Small, explainable steps are easier to correct than one dense expression that changes everything at once.