How to batch rename multiple date folders? Delete the 3 characters on the left side of the name and keep the date

If the date folder is preceded by a three-character code such as ABC, DEF, or GHI, you can quickly retain the following 8-digit date through batch renaming. This article explains how to use the HeSoft Doc Batch Tool folder name feature, add multiple directory records, select "the leftmost few characters," and set the quantity to 3, based on the before-and-after effects. It also covers considerations such as character counting, name conflicts, abnormal directories, and backing up before making changes, and is suitable for organizing monthly materials, image archives, project records, and business data directories.

Creating folders by date is a very common approach in office document management. Financial vouchers, project daily reports, scanned archives, business export data, and contract attachments may all use "year-month-day" as directory names. However, during the document generation stage, systems or business personnel often add a source code before the date, such as "ABC20240101" or "DEF20240202." After these directories are consolidated, the source code may no longer be necessary, and at that point the leading letters need to be removed, leaving only the date.

If you only need to modify one or two date folders, manually renaming them is enough; if a large number of directories are generated every month, repeated operations will become a clear burden. What is more troublesome is that the date consists of consecutive digits, and when manually deleting, pressing the backspace key just once too many may damage the integrity of the date, which will subsequently affect sorting and retrieval by time.

This article introduces a batch renaming method based on position: use HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to uniformly delete the leftmost 3 characters of each folder name. With a single setup, multiple directories named "letter code + 8-digit date" can be turned into standard date names, thereby reducing repetitive work and improving the efficiency of office document organization.

1. Applicable scenarios: batch organizing date folders with codes

1. Archiving daily reports, weekly reports, and monthly materials

When different business groups submit materials, they may add their own three-letter abbreviations before the date. After the materials are consolidated into the same archiving system, if the upper-level directories are already divided by department, the abbreviations in front of the date folders can be removed to keep the lower-level naming consistent.

2. Organizing scanned documents and image archive directories

Scanning devices or archive systems may attach a source code to each batch of materials. After export, the directory names contain both the device identifier and the date. In order to find them by time later, the fixed-length source code can be removed, leaving only the date number.

3. Project data migration

Project abbreviations used in an old system may no longer be applicable after migration to a new system. If all old codes occupy the same number of characters, the left-side content can be deleted in batch without searching for different codes one by one.

4. Batch cleaning of fixed-length numbers

In addition to English letters, this method can also be used for fixed-length numbers, Chinese characters, or symbol combinations on the left side of a name. The key to determining whether it can be used is not the character type, but whether the content to be deleted is located at the far left and whether the number of characters to delete is consistent across different directories.

If the names are "ABC-20240101" or "ABC_20240101", you need to first clarify whether the hyphen or underscore should ultimately be retained. If the target is "20240101", then the separator also belongs to the range that needs to be deleted, and you cannot still mechanically calculate based on 3 letters.

2. Preview of the effect: batch deleting codes while keeping the complete date

Before processing

In the example directory, there are multiple date folders whose left sides contain three-letter codes such as ABC, BCD, DEF, GHI, JKL, MNO, PQR, STU, VWX, and YZA. The number part after them represents the date.

By observing these names, three conclusions can be drawn: first, the content to be deleted all starts from the first character of the name; second, each code is 3 characters long; third, the dates to be retained are all located after the code. Once these three conditions are met, the same batch rule can be used.

After processing

After the batch processing is completed, the three-letter codes are removed, and the directory names retain only 8-digit dates such as 20240101, 20240202, 20240303, 20240404, and 20240505.

The date part is directly inherited from the original name and has not been manually re-entered. This not only preserves the original date information but also makes the directory format neater. For folders sorted by name in ascending order, using the 8-digit "year + month + day" format usually makes the chronological order easy to see.

3. Check folder naming patterns before starting

The efficiency of batch renaming comes from "one rule processing multiple records," but the premise is that the rule is applicable to all objects. Before starting the operation, it is recommended to spot-check the first, middle, and last items in the list and complete the following checks:

• Do all directory names contain the left-side code that needs to be deleted;
• Is the code uniformly 3 characters;
• Is there a space, hyphen, or underscore after the code;
• Are the retained dates all 8 digits, and are there any abnormal names with missing digits;
• After removing the prefix, are the target names of each folder still unique.

For example, although "ABC20240101" and "DEF20240101" have different original names, both will become "20240101" after deleting the leftmost 3 characters. It is not appropriate to have two completely identical folder names under the same path, so such records should be planned separately before execution rather than processed directly in batch.

4. Operation steps: delete the leftmost 3 characters of the name

Step 1: Open the corresponding folder name function

Run HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , and in the left function navigation click "Folder Name". In the right tool list, select "Delete text from folder names".

The positioning of HeSoft Doc Batch Tool is batch processing of office files and directories. In the interface you can also see categories such as file name, file organization, Word tools, Excel tools, PowerPoint tools, PDF tools, text tools, and image tools. However, what this example modifies is the date directory itself, so you should enter "Folder Name" and not mistakenly select "File Name".

After entering the correct function, the page will guide the operation in the order of selecting records, setting processing options, setting the save location, and starting processing. Following the steps helps complete the checks before formal execution.

Step 2: Add multiple date folders to the record list

In the first stage, click "Add Folder" and select the directories that need to be renamed uniformly this time. After being added successfully, each folder will be displayed as a record in the table.

The task shown in the screenshot has 10 records in total, with names and corresponding paths clearly listed, and the bottom summary shows "Record count: 10". Using this information, you can confirm whether the actually selected directories match the plan. If a certain item should not be processed, you can click the delete icon on the right side of that record to remove it; if the entire list was selected by mistake, you can use "Clear" to add them again.

Path checking cannot be omitted. For example, a test directory and a formal directory may have exactly the same folder name. If you only look at the name without checking the path, you may process the wrong location. After confirming the names, paths, and record count, click "Next".

Step 3: Set to delete the leftmost 3 characters of text

After entering the "Set processing options" page, select "The leftmost several characters of text". Then enter 3 in "Quantity".

The "3" here means counting from the far left of the folder name and removing the first three characters, rather than deleting any three letters at an arbitrary position in the name. Taking "JKL20240404" as an example, the first three characters are JKL, and after deletion the remaining part is 20240404; taking "PQR20240606" as an example, after deleting PQR the remaining part is 20240606.

When setting the quantity, you can write the original name in the form of "part to delete | part to retain" for verification, for example:

• ABC | 20240101;
• DEF | 20240202;
• MNO | 20240505;
• STU | 20240707.

The left side of the separator is always 3 characters, indicating that setting the quantity to 3 meets the requirements of the example. If a certain name cannot be split at the same position, it should first be removed from the task and handled separately.

Step 4: Enter the subsequent process and execute the task

After confirming the options, click "Next". The page flow shows that there are still "Set save location" and "Start processing" afterwards. Complete the subsequent steps according to the prompts on the current software interface, and check the record range and deletion quantity again before starting the processing.

If this is the first time processing a certain naming format, it is recommended not to directly choose the only copy of formal data. You can first copy 3 to 5 representative directories to a test path, including both normal names and names that may contain special symbols. After trial processing is completed and the results are confirmed to be correct, perform the same operation on the complete list.

Step 5: Verify the results after processing is completed

Return to the directory location and check whether the folder names have changed to the expected 8-digit dates. When verifying, do not look only at the first item; at least check several records at the beginning, middle, and end. You can also compare the number of records before and after processing to confirm that no directories that needed to be organized were omitted.

The correct result should appear as follows: all letter codes are removed; the first digit of the date has not been accidentally deleted; there are no residual spaces or connectors in the names; and no duplicate names have been generated among different directories. If archiving by date is still needed later, you can move or categorize them according to the actual workflow, but you should not mix other organization needs with this unverified prefix-deletion operation.

5. Common questions and precautions

1. Why not directly select "all English letters"?

The letters in the example names all happen to be located at the far left, so selecting "The leftmost several characters of text" can precisely limit the processing position. If some folders also contain English content in the latter part that needs to be retained, position-based deletion can avoid including letters in other positions in the processing. In actual use, the rule should be selected according to the name structure, rather than looking only at the character type.

2. Can three Chinese characters and three English letters both be processed by quantity?

This setting focuses on the number of leftmost characters. Regardless of whether the left side is letters, numbers, or Chinese characters, it should be confirmed item by item according to the interface rules and the actual names. For names containing combined symbols, special spaces, or uncommon characters, it is best to conduct a small-batch test first.

3. What should be done if a folder name is too short?

If a certain folder name is very short, or does not have enough content to retain, it should not be processed together with normal directories. After batch adding, check for abnormal items first, and if necessary remove them from the task by clicking the delete icon on the right side of the record.

4. Will deleting the prefix affect the documents in the folder?

This task targets folder names, but a name change means that the directory path will also change accordingly. If certain Word, docx, doc, Excel, or PDF files, or external programs reference the directory through a fixed path, the original path may need to be updated synchronously after renaming. Therefore, before formal processing, you should understand whether these folders are referenced by other processes.

5. How to avoid deleting one digit from the date?

Before setting, first clarify the actual length of the left-side code, and split at least three examples in the form of "prefix | date". In the screenshot, ABC, DEF, and GHI are all 3 characters, so fill in 3 for the quantity; do not arbitrarily increase the quantity just because a certain name visually looks longer.

6. Can folders with different structures be added together?

Technically, multiple records can be added to the list, but whether they are suitable for processing together depends on whether they can share the same rule. A safer approach is to group them by name structure: one group for three-character prefixes, one group for four-character prefixes, and another group for those with separators, then test and process them separately.

7. What preparations are needed before batch renaming?

It is recommended to keep a backup, close programs that are using the relevant directories, confirm whether the paths are referenced by business systems, and record the correspondence between the original names and the target names. For important materials, you can first process a copy and then decide whether to operate on the formal directories based on the verification results.

6. Suggestions for improving the efficiency of organizing date directories

After completing this processing, you can further establish a unified naming convention. For example, stipulate that dates should always use 8 digits, and pad with zero when the month or day is less than two digits; put department information uniformly in the upper-level directory instead of repeatedly writing it into each date folder; when the source must be retained, use a fixed length and a unified separator. The clearer the specification, the easier subsequent batch processing will be.

You can also check the naming structure each time materials are received, rather than waiting until a large number of directories have accumulated before correcting them centrally. For folders of the same format generated periodically, the verification points can be recorded as internal operating instructions: confirm the prefix length, check for duplicate target names, add directories, set the deletion quantity, run a trial, and verify the formal results. In this way, you can both leverage the efficiency advantages of batch office software and control the risks of batch renaming.

7. Summary

When multiple date folders have three-character codes, there is no need to rename them one by one. Use HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to enter "Delete text from folder names", add directories in batch, select "The leftmost several characters of text", and set the quantity to 3. Then names such as "ABC20240101" and "DEF20240202" can be organized into "20240101" and "20240202".

This method is especially suitable for date directories, project archives, and system-exported materials with a uniform structure. It consolidates repetitive deletion actions into a single rule configuration, reducing manual input and improving organization efficiency. It is recommended to first select a small number of directory copies for testing. After confirming that the dates are complete and there are no name conflicts, process all folders using the same steps.