When a large number of folder names are prefixed with fixed-length letters, numbers, or project codes, renaming them one by one is not only time-consuming but also prone to omissions and errors. This article uses the example of deleting the 1st to 3rd characters of folder names to introduce how to use the "Delete text in folder names" feature in HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to batch clean multiple folder names through position range rules, making folder names more uniform and easier to archive and retrieve.
In daily office tasks, project material organization, financial archiving, customer data classification, or batch downloading file management, you often encounter this problem: many folder names have unnecessary letters, department codes, source identifiers, or temporary numbers at the beginning, such as ABC20240101, BCD20241010, DEF20240202. If the dates, batch numbers, or order numbers at the end are what you really need to keep, the preceding letters will affect sorting, searching, and subsequent archiving.
Manually modifying folder names one by one seems like just deleting a few characters, but when there are dozens or hundreds of folders, the repetitive operations are very time-consuming and may even lead to inconsistent names due to accidental character deletion. What this article aims to solve is: Batch deleting all text within a custom range from many folder names. In the example, we uniformly delete letters from the 1st to the 3rd position of the folder name, keeping only the numeric date part afterwards.
Using screenshots, the following will demonstrate how to use the office software HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to complete this type of batch folder renaming task. This tool is positioned as batch processing software for office scenarios, suitable for handling repetitive organization tasks involving files, folders, Word, Excel, PDF, images, etc. This guide focuses on its folder name processing capability.
Applicable Scenarios: Which Folder Names Are Suitable for Deletion by Position Range
"Deleting text from folder names by position range" is suitable for situations where the name structure is relatively regular. That is, the content to be deleted is in the same position range in each folder name. For example, the first 3 characters of all folder names are letter codes and the following part is the date you need to keep; or the first 5 characters of all folder names are temporary numbers and the rest is the customer name; or a fixed segment in the name is a redundant field exported from a system.
Taking the example in the screenshot, the folder names before processing consist of two parts: 3 leading English letters and 8 trailing numeric date digits. We don’t need prefixes like ABC, BCD, DEF, GHI, and only want to keep clearer date codes like 20240101, 20241010, 20240202. In this case, using the "Position Range" rule and entering 1:3 allows you to batch delete the text from the 1st to the 3rd position of each folder name.
This method is more flexible than "finding a specific keyword and deleting it". Because the leading letters for each folder in the screenshot are not exactly the same—some are ABC, some BCD, some DEF. Setting keywords one by one would be cumbersome, whereas the position range only cares about the character's location, not what the character is. It is therefore very suitable for deleting text with "varying content but a consistent position".
Result Preview: Folder Names Before Processing Containing Redundant Letter Prefixes
Before processing, the folder names in the file explorer all had 3-letter prefixes. The highlighted red area shows that letters like ABC, BCD, DEF, GHI, JKL are located at the very beginning of the folder names. The numbers following them look like dates or business codes and are the core information to be retained.
If you only needed to process 2 or 3 folders, manually deleting the prefix might be acceptable. But the screenshot already shows 10 folders. In actual work scenarios like a project directory, material directory, or order directory, the number is likely far higher. Manual modification is not only inefficient but also prone to issues like forgetting to delete a prefix for a folder, or deleting one character too many or too few for another.
Result Preview: Unified Deletion of Text from the 1st to 3rd Position After Processing
After processing, the 3 letters originally at the beginning of the folder names have been batch deleted, keeping only the numeric part. For example, ABC20240101 becomes 20240101, DEF20240202 becomes 20240202, and JKL20240404 becomes 20240404.
You can see that all folder name formats have become more uniform. This makes it more convenient for subsequent date sorting, archiving by number, batch copying, batch compression, or continuing file organization. More importantly, the entire process does not require entering rename mode individually or repeatedly pressing keys to delete prefixes.
Step 1: Enter the Folder Name Processing Function
After opening HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , you can see multiple office processing categories in the left navigation bar, such as File Name, Folder Name, File Organization, Word Tools, Excel Tools, PowerPoint Tools, PDF Tools, Text Tools, Image Tools, etc. Since folder names are being processed this time, you should enter the Folder Name category.
In the folder name function area, select Delete Text from Folder Names. The description on this function card in the screenshot is "Batch delete text from folder names", which matches exactly the need to batch clean folder name prefixes and delete text in a specified range as described in this article.
The purpose of this step is to select the correct batch processing entry point first. Many users easily confuse "file name" and "folder name": If you want to change the name of the folder itself, select folder name related functions; if you want to change the names of files like docx, doc, xlsx, pdf, jpg, you should enter the File Name or corresponding tool category. With the correct entry selected, the objects added later will be folder records.
Step 2: Add Folders to Process and Confirm the List
After entering the "Delete Text from Folder Names" page, you can see the current task name at the top. The page uses a step-by-step process: select records to process, set processing options, set save location, and start processing. The first step is to add the folders that need processing.
Click the Add Folder button at the top right of the page to add the folders you want to batch rename into the processing list. After adding, the software will display information like sequence number, name, path, creation time, and modification time in a table. In the screenshot, 10 records have been added, including ABC20240101, BCD20241010, DEF20240202, GHI20240303, etc.
Two key points need checking in this step. First, confirm that the record count in the list is correct. For example, the bottom of the screenshot shows a record count of 10, indicating that 10 folders will be processed this time. Second, confirm whether the names and paths are indeed the directories you truly intend to process, to avoid accidentally adding unrelated folders to the task. If you find a record that does not need processing, you can delete it using the operation column on the right side of the table; if the list needs to be re-organized, you can also use the clear button on the page to re-add them.
After confirming everything is correct, click Next at the bottom to enter the processing rule setup. The expected result here is: all folders requiring batch text deletion have been added to the software list, and subsequent rules will be uniformly applied to these records.
Step 3: Select Position Range and Enter the Deletion Range
The second step is key to this operation. On the "Set Processing Options" page, you can see multiple operation types, such as all digits, all whitespace, the rightmost few texts, all content between two texts, all Chinese characters, all content, all content to the left of a certain text, position range, all English letters, the leftmost few texts, all content to the right of a certain text, etc.
Since we need to delete the text "within a specified position range" in each folder name, we should select Position Range. The screenshot shows that "Position Range" has been checked, and 1:3 has been entered in the range input box.
The 1:3 here can be understood as deleting all characters from the 1st to the 3rd position. For ABC20240101, the 1st character is A, the 2nd is B, the 3rd is C. After execution, these 3 characters are deleted, leaving the result 20240101. For BCD20241010, deleting the 1st to 3rd position yields 20241010.
The advantage of this step is that there is no need to care about the specific content of the first 3 characters. As long as the text to be deleted in all folder names is in the same position, the same range rule can be used for batch processing. Therefore, it is particularly suitable for cleaning up numbering prefixes exported from systems, supplier codes, department abbreviations, temporary batch identifiers, etc.
After setting this up, click Next. The expected result is: the software now knows to delete the text from the 1st to the 3rd position of each folder name, and the next step will lead to the save location and start processing phase.
Step 4: Set Save Location and Start Batch Processing
According to the process prompts at the top of the page, after setting processing options, you will proceed to "Set Save Location" and finally "Start Processing". For folder name modification tasks, it is recommended to reconfirm the processing list and rules before officially executing, especially whether the range numbers are correct. The example in this article aims to delete the first 3 characters, so 1:3 is entered; if you only want to delete the first 2, you should not enter 1:3 but set it according to the actual position.
After entering the save location step, complete the save-related settings according to the software page prompts, and then continue to the start processing step. Before execution, it is recommended to close any programs or windows that are currently using these folders to avoid name modification failures due to folders being occupied. Once processing starts, the software will uniformly delete text in the specified range for multiple folder names in the list according to the set rules.
After processing is complete, you can go to the directory containing the folders to view the results. The post-processing effect in the screenshot shows that all folders have had their leading 3 letters removed, leaving only numeric names like 20240101, 20240202, 20240303, 20240404.
Common Questions and Precautions
1. Where does the position range start counting from?
From the example in the screenshot, entering 1:3 resulted in the deletion of the first 3 characters at the beginning of the folder name. Therefore, when setting the range, you should first count the start and end positions of the content you want to delete. It is recommended to first dissect one typical name, e.g., in ABC20240101, A is the 1st position, B is the 2nd, and C is the 3rd.
2. What if the prefix length varies across folders? Can I still use the position range?
If the positions of the content to be deleted are inconsistent, the position range may not yield the desired result. For example, if some folder prefixes are 2 characters and others are 4 characters, uniformly deleting 1:3 will cause some names to be over-deleted or under-deleted. In such cases, based on the actual name structure, consider using other deletion methods, such as deleting content to the left or right of a certain text, deleting content between two texts, etc., but the specifics should be based on the options provided in the software interface.
3. Will it delete the files inside the folders?
What is being used here is "Delete Text from Folder Names". The processing target is the folder name itself, not deleting folders, nor deleting files inside the folders. For safety, it is still recommended to back up important data first, or test the rule with a small number of sample folders to confirm correctness.
4. Can this be used to delete text in file names?
This article demonstrates folder names. If you want to process the file names of Word documents (docx, doc), Excel spreadsheets (xlsx, xls), PDF files, or image files, you should select the corresponding File Name processing function in the software, not the Folder Name function. The logic for both types of tasks is similar, but the processing objects are different.
Summary
Batch deleting text within a custom range in folder names is essentially a solution to the problem of massive repetitive renaming. Using HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , users can add multiple folders to a list at once, choose "Delete Text from Folder Names", then use the "Position Range" and enter a rule like 1:3 to quickly delete content at specified positions in each folder name.
Compared to manual one-by-one modification, this batch processing method is more stable, saves significant time, and is more suitable for scenarios like office material archiving, project directory cleanup, and organizing batch-downloaded files. If your folder names also contain redundant text in fixed positions, it is recommended to first organize a small sample batch to confirm the rule, and then apply it batch-wide to the complete directory, thereby efficiently standardizing folder names.