Immediately I can expect that people reading this will be further driven to think that I have OCD or that I’m terribly organised and IT proficient etc. I’m not into a debate today, on how people take small pieces of information and build pictures of ‘reality’ in their heads.

Today I’m giving a tip, not teaching, on the existence of a tool that can assist. If you’re the sort of person who want’s things to happen automatically, without effort except thinking that it should happen – please leave now. I mean that!! Yes – I seek no popular reviews and I have no time to waste with fools. And if the latter upsets you leave faster! For the rest who can think deeply and see the benefits of investing time and effort to make life more efficient, read on. This is about computer filing on a hard drive only.

Rename Master is a free piece of software that allows you to rename your folders with a chosen pre-fix (or whatever way you want). I use it to sort folders and subfolders by date. So later on when I need to browse a number of files I can find them first by folder-date.  There are several pieces of software out there that do similar things. I’m not into a review of all software that can do the same. You may have used other similar software and for your needs you’re expected to find others that do it better for you.

For people who have never used this sort of software before Rename Master is good and easy to use. I suggest trying it out on a copy of a set of files and folders that you can safely delete – so there is no risk to your original files. When you’re happy with it, then take it on the open road.

I use Rename Master largely for renaming folders because I use other file renaming utilities to organise names for my files.

[Disclaimer: this tip comes with no warranty or guarantee. No liability is accepted. Sue yourself if you happen to use the software incorrectly and destroy your data which you’ve been silly enough not to backup]