Batch Files

Manual Processing Mode

In Manual Mode the program processes files only upon explicit initiation (when you add files, and click on the Start button).

Files can be added to the processing list in a variety of ways:

• Files can be selected individually
• All files from a particular folder can be added in one click
• Recursively scan directories and look for files that match given criteria
• Drag and drop from Windows Explorer / Folder / Desktop
• Import from a text-based list of file paths
• Paste from clipboard
• Open from previously saved file list
• Directly from Windows by selecting files in Windows Explorer, right-clicking, and launching the program that way (selected files will be automatically added)

Processing in Manual Mode

When files are processed in Manual Mode, a detailed progress is displayed right within the file list, letting you know which filea are being processed and what is the processing stage. A processing result will be displayed in the file list as well once the file has been processed. You can then click on that processing result to see a detailed processing log for the file.} else if (Model.ISBI) { - all through a visual pie chart.

In addition, you can easily filter the file list by processing result status. For example, you may remove all successfully processed files with just one click, leaving only those that had issues or were skipped.

Automatic Processing Mode

In Automatic Mode, instead of selecting specific files for processing, you setup "monitors" that tell the program which files should be processed and when; and the processing is performed automatically and continually when the specified conditions are met.

3 Types of Monitors

The program supports 3 kinds of monitors: File Exists, File Added, and File Changed. Depending on the kind of monitor you setup, the processing will be triggered only when appropriate condition is met.

For example, if you set up a File Exists monitor, the program will always process all qualified files in the monitored folder as long as they are present; however if you set up a File Added monitor, the program will process only the new files that have been copied to or moved to the folder since the start of its monitoring.

How Monitors Work

The monitors work by continually scanning the specified folder (directory) and subfolders for specified files that match a predefined naming pattern (mask) as well as other properties. The scanning happens at equally spaced time intervals that you define (refresh rate).

Among the file properties that may be examined are: file size, file dates, file attributes. Thus Batch Files will enqueue for processing only those files that match all the requirements specified in the monitor.

Monitors List

After a monitor has been set up, it will appear in the list of monitors.

You can define as many monitors as you like subject to the system resources you have and the product edition that you are using. Additionally, monitors can be enabled and disabled with a single click.

You can also save and open monitor lists easily, so you can reuse your monitor setups later.

Processing in Automatic Mode

In automatic mode processing works in 2 stages. First, the monitor(s) scan the specified folder(s) for any valid files, and add them to the processing queue. Then the program automatically processes all the files in that queue. These 2 stages need not be consecutive, as the program begins processing as soon as the queue is non-empty.

Unlike in the Manual Mode, in the Automatic Mode you can pause processing, make the changes to the actions in the actions sequence and / or the monitors, and then resume.

Triggered / Scheduled Processing Mode

In Triggered or Scheduled Processing Mode, file processing is started upon a specified event (trigger) or at a specific time as per the specified schedule.

You can create as many triggered/scheduled processing jobs as you want - all with different schedules, files to process, actions to perform, and other settings.

Batch Files need not be running in order for the processing jobs to be activated, the program and processing is started automatically by Windows Task Scheduler Service.

Creating Processing Jobs

Creating a processing jobs is straight forward. You define some general settings such as job's name, mode of operation. Then you specify the job's schedule or trigger that will determine when the processing job is actually ran. Finally you specify the which files should be processed; how the files should be processed (which actions should be performed); and where the processed files should be saved.

Managing Processing Jobs

Once the processing job has been created, it appears in the list of processing jobs. This list reflects all the jobs that have been created and are registered with Windows Task Scheduler Service which is responsible for job's execution.

Jobs can be enabled and disabled with a single click by putting or removing the checkmark next to the job's name in the list.

File Information Condition

Check if the file being processed matches specified file properties such as name pattern, location, size, and attributes.

The following checks can be performed by this condition:

• File name and extension match a predefined pattern (either wildcards or RegEx)
• File's parent directory matches a predefined pattern (either wildcards or RegEx)
• File's full path matches a predefined pattern (RegEx only)
• File's size is within specified range: at least N bytes, at most N bytes, exactly N bytes, between N and M bytes, not equal to N bytes
• File's creation, change, and access dates are within specified range
• File's attributes match supplied values

Content Size Condition

Check if the size of the file's contents match the specified value or range.

If it is a binary file, this is equivalent to checking file size. If the file contains text in certain encoding, you can check how many lines and/or characters a file contains, which is most often not the same as checking the size of the file in bytes (only if file is in ASCII the number of characters will equal the size of the file in bytes).

• Select how the size of file's content is calculated: by bytes (kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes), by characters, or by lines
• Check that file's content size is within specified range: at least N bytes/chars/lines, at most N bytes/chars/lines, exactly N bytes/chars/lines, between N and M bytes/chars/lines, not equal to N bytes/chars/lines

Text Content Condition

Check if the file contains or does not contain specified text.

• 6 types of checks: contains, does not contain, start with, does not start with, ends with, does not end with
• Flexible contains check: contains at least N times, contains at most N times, contains exactly N times, contains between N and M times, contains but not N times.
• Support for wildcard character matching with *
• Case-insensitive search with Ignore Case option
• Restrict search range to either specified character or line range, like "search only within last 50 lines"
• Support for RegEx-style character escapes: \x9E, \080, \u12AB

RegEx Content Condition

Check if the file contains or does not contain specified text pattern using Regular Expressions. This condition is similar to Text Content Condition, except that for searching and matching more powerful Regular Expressions are used.

• 6 types of checks: contains, does not contain, start with, does not start with, ends with, does not end with
• Flexible contains check: contains at least N times, contains at most N times, contains exactly N times, contains between N and M times, contains but not N times.
• Built-in Regular Expressions editor with color syntax highlighting, contextual tooltips, and drag & drop
• RegEx toolbar that makes it easy to insert various RegEx elements and predefined patterns
• All major RegEx options supported: Multiline (m), Single line (s), Ignore case (i), Ignore pattern whitespace (x), explicit capture (n), ECMA Script, Right to Left, Culture-Invariant.
• Restrict search range to either specified character or line range, like "search only within last 50 lines"

Binary / Byte Content Condition

Check if the file contains or does not contain specified byte pattern.

• 6 types of checks: contains, does not contain, start with, does not start with, ends with, does not end with
• Flexible contains check: contains at least N times, contains at most N times, contains exactly N times, contains between N and M times, contains but not N times.
• Built-in hex editor to allow for easy byte entry
• Supports wildcard byte matching, where specified byte will stand for any byte
• Restrict search range by specifying the byte range, like "search only within first 50 000 bytes"
• Built-in converter tool to convert between decimal, hexadecimal and binary numbers or byte representations

Multiple Text Content Condition

Check if the file contains or does not contain specified number of items from the list, or if it starts/ends with or does not start/end with any of them. This condition is useful if you want to make sure a file contains certain minimum number of specific text patterns.

• 6 types of checks: contains, does not contain, start with, does not start with, ends with, does not end with
• Flexible contains check: contains all items, contains at least N items, contains at most N items, contains exactly N items, contains between N and M items, contains but not N items, does not contain any items.
• Support for wildcard character matching with *
• Case-insensitive search with Ignore Case option
• Support for RegEx-style character escapes: \x9E, \080, \u12AB
• List of items can be saved for future use to a text file
• Text items can be imported from a text file or pasted from clipboard

Note that this condition does not let you specify precise counts for individual items.

Multiple RegEx Content Condition

Check if the file contains or does not contain specified number of text strings matched by the corresponding RegEx search patterns from the list, or if it starts/ends with or does not start/end with any of them. This condition is useful if you want to make sure a file contains certain minimum number of specific text patterns.

• 6 types of checks: contains, does not contain, start with, does not start with, ends with, does not end with
• Flexible contains check: contains all items, contains at least N items, contains at most N items, contains exactly N items, contains between N and M items, contains but not N items, does not contain any items.
• RegEx search patterns are entered in a grid that supports syntax highlighting
• All major RegEx options supported: Multiline (m), Single line (s), Ignore case (i), Ignore pattern whitespace (x), explicit capture (n), ECMA Script, Right to Left, Culture-Invariant.
• List of RegEx search patterns can be saved for future use to a text file
• RegEx search patterns can be imported from a text file or pasted from clipboard

Text Encoding Condition

Check if the file is saved or is not saved in one of the selected text encodings.

• Select multiple encodings by putting a checkmark next to them

Condition Behavior Settings

Every condition has these common behavior settings that determine how it interacts with other conditions and thus how it affects file processing flow.

• Condition may allow further processing either if the requirements / check specified by it are met or not met (i.e. if the result of checking the file against a constraint is either True or False).
• Condition group behavior determines whether the conditions add to each other (i.e. each condition in a group adds additional requirements — equivalent to logical AND, or if the processing should continue as long as at least one condition in a group will pass — equivalent to logical OR.
• In addition it is possible to compare conditions inside a group using logical XOR operator, and negate the entire condition check.
• Negation of a condition or a condition group result may be very useful, because some times it is easier to define the checks for the True case and not for the negated case.

Excellent RegEx Support

The program features excellent support for Regular Expressions in file processing tasks:

• 4 RegEx Actions: RegEx Replace, Multiple RegEx Replace, RegEx Extract, and RegEx Format
• 2 RegEx Conditions: RegEx Content and Multiple RegEx Content
• Replace supports RegEx substitutions and named or numbered groups
• 6 Built-in RegEx tools to help you design RegEx patterns: number selector, tag selector, line selector, etc.
• Complete syntax highlighting for all RegEx patterns
• Optional dynamic syntax tips for RegEx elements
• RegEx support in auxiliary operations: file searching, file renaming, etc.
• Various RegEx options: ignore case, multiline, single line, etc.

RegEx Syntax Highlighting

Program features native support for Regular Expression syntax highlighting and contextual tips. Although this feature is entirely optional and may be easily turned off, it offers important visual cues and quick help should the need arise, and is ideal for someone who is just starting with Regular Expressions.

RegEx Text Selector Tool

Regular Expressions Text Selector will generate a valid RegEx pattern that will match an arbitrary block of text, given by the starting line together with total line count, as well as starting character together with total character count per line.

RegEx Lines Selector Tool

Regular Expressions Lines Selector will generate a valid RegEx pattern that will match specified lines of text given certain constraints such as: line range and line contents.

You can, for example, specify that only the lines that contain, or start with, or perhaps do not end with specific content should be selected, and only if they fall within a given range (i.e like last 100 lines).

RegEx XML/HTML Tag Selector Tool

Regular Expressions XML/HTML Tag Selector will generate a valid RegEx pattern that will match the specified or general XML or HTML tag.

You can restrict which tags should be matched by specifying required attributes, attribute values, or require that no attribute(s) of specified kind should be present.

Any combination of the starting tag, ending tag, and the content can be selected.

RegEx Number Selector Tool

Regular Expressions Number Selector will generate a valid RegEx pattern that will match a whole number in decimal format within the specified range.

It basically lets you treat otherwise textual content in a numeric context.

RegEx Options Dialog

All RegEx operations in the program can use any combination of the following options:

• Culture-Invariant - cultural differences in language is ignored
• ECMA-Script - enables ECMAScript-compliant behavior for the pattern
• Explicit Capture n - only valid captures are explicitly named
• Ignore Case (A=a) i - performs case-insensitive matching
• Ignore Pattern Whitespace x - eliminates unescaped white space from the pattern and enables comments marked with #
• Multi-line m - ^ and $ match at the beginning and end, respectively, of any line, instead of just the beginning and end of the entire string
• Right-to-Left - the search will be performed from right to left instead of from left to right
• Single Line s - the dot . matches every character, instead of every character except \n

ASCII Character Map

Character Map tool allows you to copy and paste ASCII character codes in various formats.

Rename Files

You can give processed files any name you desire with the powerful built-in file name designer tool. It features simple drag & drop user interface that lets you select various tokens from a list of almost 100 and use these tokens as part of the generated file name.

The tokens may represent either dynamically generated content that can be included as part of the file name, or a command that somehow modifies the part of the filename that has already been generated (like changing letter case, or performing replacement operation).

Use Tags to Generate Dynamic File Names

There are close to 100 different tokens that can be used to generate dynamic file names that meet your requirements. Simply include the token in the appropriate place in the file name pattern to have dynamically generated content inserted in the right place (if the token generates content), or to affect the generated filename in other ways (if the token represents a command or operation).

The following tokens are available:

• File creation and modification dates, file size
• EXIF, ID3, and other mete-tags
• Current date and time
• Random numbers and letters
• File hashes: MD5, SHA1, SHA2, CRC…
• Original file name, extension, folder name
• Search & Replace operation letting you replace text within file name
• RegEx Replace - replace within file names using Regular Expressions
• Letter case modification commands (make upper case, lower case)

Use EXIF and ID3 tags in File Names

If the processed file is an image containing EXIF mete data or an MP3 file with ID3 meta data, you can use this meta data in the file name pattern. For example to include camera maker name and model number in the names of the processed image files include <EXIF|Make> and <EXIF|Model> in desired places in the file name pattern, and the program will automatically extract this meta data from the image and include it in the generated file name.

Recursive File Search

One of the ways you can add files to the file list for processing is by doing a search for all files that match criteria you specify. The program will scan selected directories and subdirectories for any valid files and automatically add them to the list.

• Recursive scanning with customizable depth
• Specify files to include and exclude using highly customizable patterns and masks - much more powerful than your basic wildcards but easier to use than Regular Expressions!
• Specify directories to exclude from search
• Use Regular Expressions to specify file name patterns
• Use case sensitive matching

Note that you can save your customized file searches as templates for future use.

Search for Files Based on Properties

You can find files you need for processing based on file properties like size or creation date, and attributes. This is in addition to basic search by name!

What's more is that you can fine tune these and select the exact ranges for all properties, like setting the size to be between 1MB and 5MB for example. With dates, too, you can be as specific as you want: you may, for example, look for files created on any day in May 2020, or on May 10 2020 specifically.

Search in Files for Text Content

You can search for and add files for processing using not just their names and properties, but actual contents as well. Perhaps you need to process only files that start with a particular text; or only those files that contain a particular phrase specified number of times. The program is very flexible!

Search for files based on text content using these conditions:

• Contains at least N times
• Contains at most N times
• Contains exactly N times
• Contains between N and M times
• Does not Contain N times
• Does not Contain
• Starts with / Does Not Start with
• Ends with / Does Not End with

Ignore case option and wildcards are fully supported for more advanced searches!

Search in Files for Bytes & Binary Content

You can search for and add files for processing using their binary content. Perhaps you need to process only files that start with a particular sequence of bytes; or only those files that contain a particular byte sequence no more than specified number of times. The program is very flexible!

Search for files based on binary content using these conditions:

• Contains at least N times
• Contains at most N times
• Contains exactly N times
• Contains between N and M times
• Does not Contain N times
• Does not Contain
• Starts with / Does Not Start with
• Ends with / Does Not End with

Wildcards are fully supported for more advanced searches!

Setup a Processing Job - General Properties

Processing jobs allow you to setup various batch file processing tasks that will be executed on a specified trigger or on schedule.

General properties include: name of the job, general timeframe when the job can be active, operation mode that determines if any UI will be shown, and user account together with security context under which the job will be executed.

Setup a Processing Job - Select Files

There are several ways in which you can specify which files should be processed by a processing job:

• Specified directories will be scanned for files matching a given name pattern
• Specified file search template will be used (see Recursive File Search)
• Specified list of files containing files' full paths will be used.

Setup a Processing Job - Specify Actions

Once you have specified which files should be processed by a processing job, the next step is to specify how these files should be processed, which actions and operations should be performed. This is done by specifying a previously saved Action Sequence.

Additionally you can customize a few other processing aspects like the number of processing threads and logging options.

Setup a Processing Job - Output Settings

Output settings determine where and how the processed files are saved. All the options that are available in Step 3 in Manual and Automatic processing modes can be customized here as well. These include:

• File naming pattern and destination / output folder
• Output mode: normal, join, split, or zip
• Ability to define a third-party tool to execute after processing has finished
• Backup- and file saving- related options

Setup a Processing Job - Triggers - Monthly

Last step in setting up a processing job is to define a trigger or specify a schedule that will determine when the processing job will actually execute.

Monthly trigger lets you specify that a job should be executed on a monthly basis. You can select specific days of the month or weeks when the job should be run, as well as specify which months should be included and which ones should be excluded.

Setup a Processing Job - Triggers - Weekly

Last step in setting up a processing job is to define a trigger or specify a schedule that will determine when the processing job will actually execute.

Weekly trigger lets you specify that a job should be executed on a weekly basis. You can select specific days of the week when the job should be run.

Setup a Processing Job - Triggers - Daily

Last step in setting up a processing job is to define a trigger or specify a schedule that will determine when the processing job will actually execute.

Daily trigger lets you specify that a job should be executed on a daily basis. You can specify the daily recurrence pattern as well.

Setup a Processing Job - Triggers - Event

Last step in setting up a processing job is to define a trigger or specify a schedule that will determine when the processing job will actually execute.

Event-based triggers lets you specify that a job should be executed when a particular application or system event occurs. This feature is available only on Windows Vista or higher. Any events that you see in the Windows Event Viewer are supported, and a processing job will be automatically started by Windows Task Scheduler Service when the associated event occurs.

Setup a Processing Job - Command Line Preview

A processing job is automatically executed by the means of Windows Task Scheduler Service launching the program on appropriate trigger / schedule and with job-specific command line arguments.

The Command Line Preview tab shows you the exact command line that will be run in order to start the processing job. That way you can launch the program manually with appropriate parameters and have the same processing job be manually started.

Common Tasks - Working with Lines

One of the most frequent tasks when processing text-based files is working with lines in one way or another. The program offers multiple common operations relating to lines:

• Sort and shuffle lines
• Delete specific lines, remove blank / empty lines
• Insert new lines
• Append or insert text, prefix lines
• Remove text from the ends of lines
• Trim and format lines
• Move and copy lines

Common Tasks - Copy Content

There are several built-in common tasks for copying or moving parts of the file to another position. You can duplicate lines; you can copy lines from the start or end of the file to another position, or relative to their current location; you can copy blocks of bytes to another position; and more!

Common Tasks - Convert & Encode

Program also offers various encoding and conversion -related common tasks that help you change text file encoding, convert text to binary and vice versa, convert HTML to plain text, etc.

• Convert files between different encodings and code pages: UTF-8, UTF-7, UTF-16, ASCII, Cyrillic, etc.
• Convert files containing binary data in hex form to actual binary representation and vice versa
• Convert to and from Base-64 and Quoted-Printable encodings
• Convert HTML to plain text
• Convert Morse code to plain text and vice versa

Common Tasks - Working with Files

Not only can you modify file's contents with common tasks, but it's very easy to perform various file system -related operations as well:

• Find files using content-based recursive search
• Move and copy files
• Rename files
• Delete files
• Split and join files
• Encrypt and decrypt files
• Generate file hashes
• Modify file attributes

Common Tasks - Binary Data

There are various common tasks related to working with binary data and modifying individual bytes as well as performing binary search and replace operations.

Very Detailed Tooltips

Batch Files features very detailed and helpful tooltips that are available for virtually all user interface elements. If the text is too long, it is broken up into several pages that you can easily scroll through with your mouse wheel. No need to view external documentation, the help is completely integrated with the product!

Movable Tooltips

Some tooltips can be moved around and pinned so they stay visible on top of other windows until closed. This is useful when a tooltip displays certain technical information that may be needed to configure certain settings, and should therefore remain visible even when the mouse is no longer hovering over its parent element!

File Tooltips

There are very detailed tooltips for files in the file list! Such tooltips display not only basic file information like file name, location, size, and attributes, but also show first few dozens of bytes that make up file content! These tooltips also inform you of what actions are possible with the file selected.

Action Tooltips

Action tooltips display detailed information about the actions in the action sequence. When you move your mouse over an action in an action sequence, a tooltip will be displayed, explaining what the action does, what are the current action options, and what things you can do with a given action.

Action tooltips can be pinned so they stay of top and not auto-close, so that as you make changes to action's options, these changes will be automatically reflected in the action options summary displayed on the pinned tooltip.

List Items Tooltips

Various lists in the program that let you select different items (like tokens, tags, etc.) also offer detailed tooltips that display relevant information about items in the list.

Concept-Related Tooltips

Certain tooltips not only explain what a particular button or interface element does and how it can be used, but they also explain the underlying concept, as is illustrated by this tooltip displaying information about Regular Expressions language element.

Smart Contextual Tooltips

Although optional and can be turned off, the program also offers contextual tooltips that will appear when you move your mouse over distinct parts of text in certain text fields that support syntax highlighting.

Such tooltips are featured for all text fields that accept Regular Expression patterns as input; fields that allow character escapes; and in the file name pattern designer.

This is very useful, as simply by hovering your mouse over different areas in the text fields, you will instantly know what a particular RegEx element or file name token does.

Process Files from Windows Explorer

If you install optional Windows integration component, you will be able to launch Batch Files directly from Windows explorer by selecting the files or a folder containing files that you wish to process, right-clicking on the selection, and choosing Batch Process Files menu.

Program Starts in Compact Mode

When you launch program from Windows Explorer, it starts in a very compact mode with the files you selected in Windows Explorer already automatically added and ready for processing. This is done for your convenience so you can process file right away!

By default, if the program is started from Windows Explorer, it will automatically quit once the processing has been completed. However there is an option to change this behavior if you want.

Compact Mode UI

When the program is started in compact mode, it shows only the primary action you selected in the Windows Explorer's right-click context menu when you launched the program, and additionally crucial output settings that include file naming pattern and destination to save processed files.

If this is not enough for your needs and you need to make some changes and add more actions or files, or adjust other settings, you can always enter Full View by simply maximizing the window. There is also an option for the program to always start in Full View if you want.

File Copy Helper

This dialog helps you copy files matching criteria you specify.

File Move Helper

This dialog helps you move files matching criteria you specify from one folder to another.

File Rename Helper

This dialog helps you rename multiple files matching criteria you specify according to the specified pattern.

Split Files Helper

This dialog helps you split multiple files matching criteria you specify.

You can split files into parts of a given size or into specified number of parts.

File Merge Helper

This dialog walks you through the process of combining multiple files into one using specified options and merge mode.

File Hash Calculator

This dialog lets you specify how you want the file hashes to be generated and where the output should be saved.