How to batch delete the leftmost few characters of folder names? Folder batch rename tutorial

When a large number of folder names have fixed-length prefixes that are no longer needed, renaming them one by one is not only time-consuming, but also prone to deleting too few, too many, or missing characters. This article uses removing the leftmost 3 characters from folder names as an example to show how to use HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to import folders in bulk, set deletion rules, and complete batch renaming. The operation will not delete Word, Excel, PDF, images, or other files inside the folders, and is suitable for organizing project numbers, department codes, customer abbreviations, and historical archive directories.

When organizing project materials, client files, or annual archive directories, you often encounter this situation: many folder names have basically the same structure, except that there is a text segment on the far left that is no longer needed. For example, the original folder names are ABC20240101, DEF20240202, GHI20240303, and now you want to uniformly delete the 3 English letters on the left, keeping only the date or business number that follows.

If there are only two or three folders, renaming them one by one in File Explorer is not difficult; but when the number grows to dozens, hundreds, or even more, manual editing creates a large amount of repetitive work, and problems such as missed changes, inconsistent numbers of deleted characters, and accidental deletion of numbers can easily occur. For this kind of fixed-position, fixed-quantity folder name processing task, you can use the folder name processing feature in the office software HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to create a rule once and apply it to a whole batch of folders.

This article will use batch deletion of the leftmost 3 characters of folder names as an example to explain the changes before and after processing, applicable scenarios, and the complete workflow. This method processes folder names, not deleting folders, and it will not actively modify the doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, PDF, images, or other material contents inside the folders because of renaming.

1. Applicable scenarios: which folder names are suitable for deletion by the number of characters on the left

Batch deletion by the number of leftmost characters is suitable for scenarios where multiple folders have a consistent naming structure. Its key feature is that the content to be removed may differ, but the length is the same, and it is located at the far left of each folder name.

1. Delete fixed-length department or project codes

For example, ABC20240101, BCD20241010, DEF20240202. Each name starts with 3 English letters, but the letter content is different. If you ultimately only need to keep the date number, you can uniformly delete the leftmost 3 characters instead of separately searching for different content such as ABC, BCD, DEF, etc.

2. Clean up short prefixes added by export systems

When some business systems export materials, they automatically add region abbreviations, personnel codes, or classification markers before directory names. If these prefixes have the same length, they can be cleaned up in bulk directly by position and quantity.

3. Unify the naming rules of historical archive directories

Old directories may use a format of department code plus date, while new rules require keeping only the date, order number, or project number. In this case, using the batch rename feature can reduce the workload of editing folder names one by one.

4. Situations not suitable for direct use

If different folders need prefixes of different lengths deleted - for example, one name needs 2 characters deleted while another needs 5 - it is not suitable to apply the same quantity directly without classification. It is recommended to group them by naming structure first and then process them separately. If what you want to delete is a fixed keyword segment in the folder name rather than a fixed number of left-side characters, you should also choose a processing method that matches the target rule.

2. Effect preview: comparison before and after deleting the leftmost 3 characters of folder names

Folder names before processing

Before processing, there are 10 example folders, each starting with 3 English letters followed by 8 digits, such as ABC20240101, BCD20241010, DEF20240202, GHI20240303, etc. The position marked in red is the left-side letter part to be batch deleted this time.

These letters are not exactly the same keyword, so setting find criteria one by one would be troublesome. However, they all share a common pattern: they are located at the far left of the name, and the quantity is 3 characters. As long as the processing condition is set according to this common pattern, the whole batch of folders can be processed at once.

Folder names after processing

After the operation is completed, the first three English letters in the original names have been removed, and the remaining date numbers are fully preserved. For example, ABC20240101 becomes 20240101, DEF20240202 becomes 20240202, and GHI20240303 becomes 20240303.

From the results, you can see that this processing only changes the left part of the folder names and does not delete the numbers after them. Because the names change, File Explorer may rearrange the folders according to the new name order. This is normal and does not mean that the number of folders or their contents have changed.

3. Preparation before operation: confirm the deletion rule and data safety first

Before starting batch modification, it is recommended to check the naming pattern first. In this example, the first 3 characters of all folders are the English letters to be deleted, and only from the 4th character onward is the date that needs to be kept. Therefore, you should choose to delete the leftmost several characters and fill in 3 as the quantity.

Also pay special attention to the fact that the software executes rules by character position and does not automatically determine whether a character belongs to a project number. If a folder does not have a 3-character prefix, for example, if the name is directly 20240505, then applying the same rule to it may delete the first 3 digits of the number. Therefore, after importing, you should carefully review the list and exclude records that do not match the pattern.

For important materials, it is recommended to test with a small number of copies first. After confirming that the processing results meet expectations, process the formal directories. Batch renaming is very efficient, but incorrect rules can also be quickly applied to multiple records, so checking in advance saves more time than reworking afterward.

4. Operation steps: batch delete the leftmost several characters of folder names

Step 1: Enter the function for deleting text from folder names

Open HeSoft Doc Batch Tool . In the function category on the left, select Folder Name, then find Delete text from folder name in the function panel and enter it.

The purpose of this step is to enter the workflow specifically for processing folder names. In the interface, you can also see other functions such as Find and Replace, Insert Text, Add Prefix and Suffix, and Case Conversion, but this task requires deleting a fixed number of characters from the far left of the name, so you should choose Delete text from folder name instead of using Replace or Add Prefix.

Step 2: Add the folders to be modified in batch

After entering the function page, you are currently at the stage of selecting the records to process. Click Add Folder in the upper right corner to add the directories that need to be renamed to the task list. After adding, the interface will display information such as serial number, name, path, creation time, and modification time.

In the screenshot, 10 records have already been imported. You can see original names such as ABC20240101, BCD20241010, DEF20240202 in the Name column. At this point, focus on checking three aspects: whether the number of folders is correct, whether the paths belong to the intended target location, and whether the name structure all conforms to the pattern that the first three characters need to be deleted.

If you accidentally add records that do not need to be processed, you can use the delete icon at the corresponding row operation position to remove them from the current task. The interface also provides entries such as Clear, Filter, and Sort to help organize the current records. After confirming that the list is correct, click Next to enter rule settings.

Step 3: Select the leftmost several characters and fill in the quantity

On the processing options page, the operation type includes multiple rules such as all numbers, all Chinese characters, all English letters, the rightmost several characters, the leftmost several characters, and position range. In this example, you need to delete the 3 characters at the beginning of the name by position, so select the leftmost several characters.

Fill in 3 in the quantity input box below. Here, 3 means deleting 3 characters starting from the far left of each folder name. For ABC20240101, for example, the software will delete ABC and keep 20240101; for DEF20240202, it will delete DEF and keep 20240202.

When filling in the quantity, do not mistake the number of digits to keep for the number of digits to delete. In this example, the 8 digits after the prefix need to be kept, but the quantity box should still be filled with 3, because the rule requires the number of characters to delete. After completing the settings and checking again, click Next.

Step 4: Follow the interface workflow to confirm the save location and start processing

From the workflow indicator at the top of the page, you can see that there are still two later stages: Set Save Location and Start Processing. After entering the next step, confirm the processing location or save arrangement according to the interface prompts, and then continue to the Start Processing stage. Because this task will change folder names, it is recommended to confirm the target path and rule quantity again before formal execution.

After processing is complete, return to the corresponding directory to check the results. You can spot-check the first, middle, and last folders to confirm that the leftmost 3 characters have been deleted and the following numbers are not missing, while also verifying the total number of folders and whether the internal files are still complete.

5. Common questions and precautions

1. How should the deletion quantity be determined

Start from the far left of the name and count the characters to be removed one by one. For example, if you want to delete ABC- together with ABC- in ABC-20240101, you need to include both the letters and the connector in the quantity; if you only delete ABC and keep the hyphen, then only count 3 characters. Before formal execution, you can copy the folder name into a text editor to check it character by character.

2. Do English letters, Chinese characters, and numbers all count as text

This tutorial uses a rule that deletes by leftmost position and quantity, with the focus on the position of the characters. The beginning of the name may be English letters, numbers, Chinese characters, or symbols, so do not estimate by sight alone. In particular, pay attention to whether spaces, hyphens, underscores, and parentheses are also within the left-side range.

3. Will deleting the name delete the files inside the folder

What is performed here is folder renaming, and the target is the text in the name, not deleting the folder itself. Under normal circumstances, the Word documents, Excel workbooks, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, images, and other files in the folder are still retained. However, for important materials, it is still recommended to back them up first, and avoid allowing other programs to continuously occupy or synchronize these directories during processing.

4. Why does the display order change after processing

File Explorer usually sorts by name. After deleting the letter prefix, the sorting basis changes from letters plus numbers to pure numbers, so directories that were originally near the front may move to other positions. As long as the names and quantities are verified to be correct, this is usually not a processing error.

5. Can prefixes of different lengths be deleted at once

If the prefix length of each folder is different, it is not recommended to uniformly fill in the same quantity. You can first divide folders with the same structure into multiple batches, such as one batch for 2-character prefixes and another for 3-character prefixes, and then set rules separately. This is easier to check than mixed processing in one pass and also reduces the risk of accidentally deleting valid numbers.

6. Summary

Batch deleting the leftmost several characters of folder names is essentially converting repetitive manual renaming actions into one unified rule. As long as the folders have left-side prefixes of fixed length, you can use HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to complete the process in sequence: select the function, add folders, set the leftmost several characters, fill in the deletion quantity, and start processing.

Compared with modifying names one by one on the keyboard, batch processing is more suitable for tasks such as project archiving, department material organization, client directory standardization, and historical data migration. It is recommended to first confirm the naming pattern, test with a small number of copies, and then import the formal folders for execution. Now you can select a group of directories with the same structure, fill in the correct deletion quantity according to the steps in this article, and complete your first batch rename.