Negative increment for multiple rename function

[Rolf Wiegand]

Hi,
I use a HP scanjet 5590 with duplexing auto document feeder. When the paper of the originals is too light or too heavy the duplexing does not work properly. A workaround is to scan both sides separately. Then it would be a very great help to have a negative increment of -1 or -2 for use with the multiple rename function to rename the back sides. By now I have to rename every single file manually.
Best regards
Rolf

[Dreamer]

Could you explain please? Some example, how it should look before/after. You can use "<Filename> -##" - result will be "file -01.jpg", "file -02.jpg"...

[Rolf Wiegand]

Hi,
if I scan a batch of paper without duplex-feature (because paper weight is too heavy) I get in the first run pages 1, 3, 5, ..... 49. These I scan with option "uneven pages" and increment 2. Then I flip the batch of papers to scan the backsides. Then I get the pages 50, 48, 46, 44,....2 . Therefor I would appreciate the possibility to start the scan with page 50 an an increment of -2 (i.e. a decrement). A workaround can be to scan these pages in normal way and use multiple rename to rename the files starting with 50 and "incrementing" by -2.
By now I do the rename by hand, which is very boring because of the amount of pages I am scanning.

[Dreamer]

Try "Step: 2".

[Rolf Wiegand]

Hi Dreamer,
step 2 will work only for the front pages of the batch of papers. If you flip the batch to scan the back pages you get the sort order descendent (just take a journal and look at the sort order of the pages when you look from the front or from the back).

[atx4us]

I have the same need for the negative increment (step) for the multiple rename function. Can you please implement this functionality? I have to use a different rename tool right now to accomplish this task because it is much too tedious to rename hundreds (or even thousands) of files manually.

[Drahken]

So... As I understand this; You have a bunch of files in reverse order & want to rename them in proper order? So that 1, 2, 3, 4 becomes 50, 49, 47, 46 (or vice-versa)?
The solution to that is simple: On the batch rename dialog, click the "sort by" drop down and set it to "name (descending)". This will reverse the order of the numbering.






^ Note how the order of the original files is reversed, while the order of the new names remains the same, thus renumbering the files in reverse order.

[atx4us]

That's a really cool tip! Thanks a lot for the hint. But, for most users, it will be more intuitive to use a negative increment value.

[Drahken]

To me, changing the order of the files in the list is much more intuitive. In fact, it took me several re-readings of the posts in this thread to grasp what you & the original poster (from 6 years ago) were trying to do.