How to batch delete Chinese characters in folder names, keeping only numbers or English characters

When a large number of folders are named in the format of "Chinese description + number," and only the number needs to be retained during archiving, uploading, or system import, renaming them one by one is not only time-consuming but also prone to omissions. This article explains how to use HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to import multiple folders at once, select the "Remove text from folder names" feature, set the operation type to "All Chinese characters," and batch remove Chinese characters from folder names while retaining the original numbers, English, and other content. It also explains the complete workflow, including before-and-after effects, operating steps, and precautions.

When organizing project materials, customer files, financial records, or business data, we often encounter a batch of folders named in the format "Chinese name + numeric identifier," such as "报告03," "备份1000," "财务606," and "项目001." Such names are convenient for manual review, but when importing folders into other business systems, creating a unified numbering directory, matching database codes, or delivering them to external platforms, the system may only require the numeric identifier to be retained. In this case, if you rely on File Explorer to modify folder names one by one, you will not only need to perform a large number of repetitive operations, but you may also accidentally fail to delete a Chinese character, enter the wrong identifier, or miss a folder.

This article addresses the problem of batch-deleting all Chinese characters from many folder names. We will use the office software " HeSoft Doc Batch Tool " to add multiple folders to a task in a unified way, select "All Chinese characters" in the text deletion feature, and let the software complete the folder renaming in batch. The entire process is suitable for handling dozens, hundreds, or even more similar directories and can significantly reduce the workload of manually modifying names.

Applicable scenarios: which folder names are suitable for batch deletion of Chinese characters

This method is suitable for cases where folder names contain Chinese text but need to retain numbers, English letters, or other non-Chinese content. Common requirements include:

• Standardizing project directories: processing "项目001," "设计004," and "报告03" into "001," "004," and "03" for easier archiving by project number.
• Converting customer materials into numeric identifiers: removing the Chinese descriptions from directories such as "客户202" and "客户A102," keeping only the customer code.
• Importing into financial or archival systems: some systems require directory names to exactly match the identifiers in data tables, and Chinese prefixes may cause matching failures.
• Cross-platform transfer: some scripts, legacy systems, or specific workflows have limited compatibility with Chinese paths, so Chinese characters in folder names need to be cleaned up first.
• Batch-organizing office materials: employees often create many directories in daily work such as "会议808," "归档99," and "照片77," which need to be uniformly changed to purely numeric names.

It should be noted that this tutorial deals with folder names, not with deleting folders, nor with deleting the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, image, or other files inside the folders. After modification, files such as doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, and pdf in the folders remain in their original directories; only the outer folder names change.

Result preview: folder names before and after processing

Before processing: names consist of Chinese descriptions and numeric identifiers

Before processing, the directory contains multiple groups of folders to be organized, including "报告03," "备份1000," "财务606," "导出55," "归档99," "会议808," "客户202," "设计004," "项目001," and "照片77." These names all contain Chinese characters, with numeric identifiers of different lengths retained at the end.

As can be seen from the screenshot, what really needs to be kept are identifiers such as "03," "1000," "606," "55," "99," "808," "202," "004," "001," and "77." If renaming one by one, you would need to select ten folders separately and manually delete the Chinese parts; as the number of directories continues to increase, the repetitive labor becomes even more obvious.

After processing: Chinese characters are removed, and the original numeric identifiers are retained

After batch processing is completed, the Chinese characters in the folder names have been deleted, and the corresponding directories become "001," "03," "004," "55," "77," "99," "202," "606," "808," and "1000."

The correspondence before and after processing is very intuitive: "报告03" becomes "03," "备份1000" becomes "1000," "财务606" becomes "606," "设计004" becomes "004," and "项目001" becomes "001." Leading zeros in the numbers are also preserved; for example, "001" and "004" do not become "1" and "4." This is especially important for fixed-length project codes, archival identifiers, and serial numbers.

The display order after processing may differ from that before processing. This is because File Explorer re-sorts according to the new names, and it does not mean that folders have been lost. When judging the result, focus on verifying the number of folders and the correspondence of identifiers before and after processing.

Operation steps: batch-deleting all Chinese characters from folder names

Step 1: Enter the folder name processing feature

Open HeSoft Doc Batch Tool . This software is designed for batch processing of office documents and files, and can be used to reduce repetitive file and folder organization work. In the function category on the left, select "Folder Name," and the main interface will display multiple tools related to directory naming.

Find and enter "Delete text from folder names." From the feature description, you can confirm that it is used to batch-delete specified text types from folder names, which is exactly suitable for the requirement of clearing Chinese characters this time.

The purpose of this step is to enter the task flow specifically for processing folder name text, rather than using find-and-replace to fill in different words such as "报告," "财务," and "客户" one by one. Because the Chinese content in multiple folders varies, selecting "All Chinese characters" by character type for deletion is more efficient.

Step 2: Add the folders that need batch renaming

After entering the feature page, you are currently in the "Select records to process" stage. Click the "Add Folder" button in the upper-right corner of the interface to add the folders whose names need to be cleaned into the task list. After adding, the software will display information such as sequence number, name, path, creation time, and modification time in a table.

The ten folders in the screenshot have all been added to the list, and the summary position at the bottom shows "Record count: 10." Before continuing, you should check the "Name" and "Path" items one by one to confirm that the target directories have been added. For example, in this case, the directories are all located under the same test path, and the names are consistent with the screenshot before processing.

If you find that a record should not be processed, you can use the delete icon in that row's operation area to remove it from the current list; if the entire selection is wrong, you can also use "Clear" provided by the interface to add again. The purpose of removing records from the task list here is to adjust the objects to be processed. During this operation, you should still carefully verify to avoid bringing business directories that do not need renaming into the batch process.

After confirming that the record count and paths are correct, click "Next" at the bottom to enter the processing option settings.

Step 3: Set the operation type to "All Chinese characters"

On the "Set processing options" page, you can see multiple deletion methods, including all numbers, all whitespace, the rightmost several characters, all content between two texts, all Chinese characters, all content, content to the left or right of a certain text, position ranges, all English letters, and so on.

The goal this time is to delete all Chinese characters from folder names, so select "All Chinese characters".

This step is the key to the entire task. After selecting "All Chinese characters," the software will identify and remove Chinese characters in folder names according to character type, rather than requiring the user to separately enter keywords such as "报告," "备份," and "财务." In this way, even if the Chinese parts of each directory are completely different, they can still be processed uniformly in the same task.

Do not mistakenly select "All content," otherwise numbers and other content in the names may also become deletion targets; likewise, do not select "All numbers," because what really needs to be kept in this example is exactly the project identifiers. After completing the settings, click "Next."

Step 4: Continue with the save location and start processing

From the process navigation at the top of the page, you can see that there are still two stages afterwards: "Set save location" and "Start processing." Please continue according to the software interface flow, check the records to be processed and the deletion rules again before formal execution, and then start the task.

Because folder renaming affects the original paths, it is recommended to test with a small number of copies first. After confirming that "Chinese characters are deleted, identifiers are retained, and the files inside the folders can be opened normally," you can then process the formal directories. After the task is completed, return to File Explorer and refresh the directory to check the final names.

Why batch processing is more efficient than manual renaming

Manually processing ten folders may seem not difficult, but in actual work there are often far more than ten directories. Renaming one by one usually requires repeatedly performing actions such as selecting, entering edit mode, locating the Chinese text, deleting the characters, and confirming the name. When names are similar, it is also easy to accidentally change "001" to "01," or accidentally delete leading zeros.

HeSoft Doc Batch Tool consolidates these repetitive steps into one task: add folders once and set "All Chinese characters" once, so that the same rule is applied to the entire batch of directories. For personnel in administration, finance, archives, design, project management, and data organization, the value of this office software is not to replace judgment, but to stably execute already determined rules on every record, thereby reducing omissions and input errors.

Frequently asked questions and precautions

1. After deleting Chinese characters, will the zeros before the numbers disappear?

From the example results, "项目001" still becomes "001" after processing, and "设计004" still becomes "004." What the software performs is deletion of Chinese characters, rather than converting folder names into numeric values, so leading zeros in identifiers can continue to be retained as name characters.

2. Will the Word, Excel, or PDF files in the folders be deleted?

This feature processes folder names and is not equivalent to deleting folder contents. Normally, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, pdf, image, and other files in the directory remain in that folder. However, after the folder path changes, existing shortcuts, script references, or fixed paths in software may need to be updated synchronously.

3. What should I do if a folder name is entirely Chinese?

If the name consists entirely of Chinese characters, there may be no characters left to retain after deleting all Chinese characters. It is recommended to check such directories before processing, add numeric or English identifiers to them, or remove them from this task list. Do not directly process important materials without verifying the results.

4. Can multiple folders become identically named after processing?

This is possible. For example, "报告001" and "项目001" will both become "001" after removing Chinese characters. Two completely identical folder names cannot exist simultaneously under the same path, so you must check whether identifiers are unique before formal processing. If duplicate identifiers exist, adjust the naming scheme first, and then perform batch deletion.

5. Why does the folder arrangement order change after processing?

After deleting Chinese characters, File Explorer re-sorts according to the new names. In the screenshot, names such as "001," "03," and "004" are displayed according to the current sorting rules, so the order differs from the original list of Chinese names. This is a change in display order and does not mean that the directory contents have been disrupted.

6. Do I need to back up before formal processing?

For important directories such as financial archives, customer materials, and project delivery files, it is recommended to keep backups first and test with a small number of copied directories. The high efficiency of batch operations also means that incorrect rules will quickly affect multiple records, so checking the path, quantity, duplicate-name risk, and rules before execution cannot be omitted.

Summary

The core process of batch-deleting Chinese characters from folder names can be summarized as follows: open HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , enter the "Folder Name" category, select "Delete text from folder names," add the folders to be processed, select "All Chinese characters" in the processing options, and then follow the wizard to complete subsequent settings and start processing.

For directories such as "Chinese description + numeric identifier" or "Chinese prefix + English code," this method can retain identifiers and other non-Chinese characters, avoiding the repetitive labor of editing names one by one. It is recommended to first organize the directories to be processed and check the uniqueness of identifiers, then verify the effect with a small number of copies. Once the rules are confirmed to meet expectations, you can add the complete folder list to the software and complete the batch rename in one go.