BRU Track Column does not reflect WE tracking info

[KarenSMO]

I have just begun what will become a recurring project to rename a series of files where sorting by the Track (# in WE) column is critical to ensure the files are renamed in a specific order. The # column in the WE folder shows the correct order from 0 to whatever. But in BRU, the Track column shows all zeroes.

Fortunately, I'm still able to rename the files because I've already sorted the files in WE by the # column, and BRU retains that order in its display as well as when actually renaming the files (weirdly, Windows's PowerTools does not!). So that's a good thing. But it would be nice if the Track column reflected what the WE # shows to provide a visual confirmation that the sort order is exactly as I need it to be.

Is there something I should be doing to ensure this information is correct, or is this more of a feature request?

Thanks in advance!

Karen

[therube]

(Maybe post a link to a song where WE shows a track number & where BRU shows '0'.)

[KarenSMO]

Hi, therube -

Thanks for your response. It's no a music track. These are files produced by a proprietary video recording software that generates avi (for the video portion) and ogg (for the audio portion) files. It creates a continuing series of 10-minute files during a recording session. The audio will be imported into other processes, and it is very important that the file sequence be in the correct order, as the files were recorded.

I do not know why, but the recording software has a peculiar system for naming the files which causes them to be sorted out of order when sorting by the WE name field. You can see in the list, for example, that some files are numbered 301, 302, 303, etc., and others are 30a, 30b, 30c, etc. When sorting by the Name field, WE sorts the 30a, 30b, 30c, etc. files first, which is incorrect. But the files also include the Track/# sequence, which is a godsend in this project to keep the files in the correct order.

I can't send you a link, since the files are located on my local drive, but I can send you a screen shot that shows the same folder in the BRU view (left) as well as the WE view (right). Of course, the BRU view is also going to include the extra column that shows the new name, but otherwise, it is the same "live" shot of the same folder, and you can see the Track column in BRU has zero while the # column in WE has the correct sequence/track numbers. I hope this helps. -Karen

[Admin]

Hi, the track numbers you see in BRU are the track numbers extracted from MP3 files.
This info is extracted from MP3 files if the option "ID3 / Exif Data / File Properties > Extract ID3 Data" is enabled in the Renaming Options.
If the format of your files is proprietary, it might not be possible for other applications to access the track number that is encoded in the file.

[Admin]

Please try this. In BRU, right click on a file and, from the menu, select "Show List of File Properties". Do you see the track number in the list of file properties?

[KarenSMO]

Thanks for that clarification about what the Track info represents in BRU. That's helpful to know. I was thinking it might be the same as the # column info in WE, but now I'm thinking it's not. In 50+ years of tech work, I've actually never paid any mind to the # column in WE, and it's one of several that I close when I open WE to look at audio files, since I'm primarily dealing with audio and video for transcription purposes and not music per se.

This is the first time I've ever needed to deal with the # info, which my understanding is that it represents the sequenced order that the files were created - so not the track number. But some articles online refer to # as the track number as well, so that's why I connected those dots when I saw the column in BRU, although it was puzzling that it was all zeros.

The proprietary software that plays these files understands how to deal how to put them in the right order for continuous playback. But I am converting the files for additional processing outside the proprietary environment, and that's when things go awry. WE only recognizes the proper sort order if it's sorted by the # column, not the name. Thankfully, the BRU software displays the files exactly as they are currently sorted in the WE folder, so I just have to make sure they are sorted properly in WE, and BRU will rename them in the proper sequence. Yay to that! But it would be nice if the # column info was available for display in BRU. But it's now sounding like an iffy prospect after your clear explanation of the challenge of accessing that info in proprietary files.

As you requested, I right-clicked on one of the files in BRU and selected "Show List of File Properties." I picked the file that begins with "05" in the original list. The # info ("5") does show up in that list (see red arrow). The pic is below. I blacked out some lines that contain confidential information.

Thanks again! -Karen

[Admin]

Great if you can see that number in the file properties then it will be usable in BRU as well.

Using Windows File Properties to Rename Files

With Bulk Rename Utility you can read and use the Windows File Properties to rename your files.
Windows File Properties are only available on Windows Vista or newer.

*** To enable Windows File Properties tags support in Bulk Rename Utility, activate the option 'Extract Windows File Properties' from the Renaming Options menu.

To show a list of all available file properties, for a file or a file type, in Bulk Rename Utility, right-click on a file in the main file list and select 'Show List of File Properties' from the popup context menu. See image below.

Alternatively, you can also see the file properties of a file in Windows Explorer: right-click on a file and select "Properties" and then "Details".

Each file property has three entries: a LABEL, a VALUE and a NAME. You can select a file property by LABEL or by NAME and then use its VALUE to rename a file.

Using File Properties in Add (7)

You can use the file properties in Add(7) as tags. To enable Windows File Properties tags support in Bulk Rename Utility, activate the option 'Extract Windows File Properties' from the Renaming menu.
To use a file property, specify the file property like this: <(propertylabel)> or <(propertyname)>. The tag will be replaced by the property value for that property.

For instance :
Prefix : <(System.Photo.CameraManufacturer)> might add "OLYMPUS" as a prefix.
Suffix : <(System.Image.HorizontalSize)> might add "3648 pixels" as a suffix.
Prefix : <(Title)> might add the file title as a prefix.

The file properties can be referred to by Label or Name. They can be used in Add(7) -> Prefix, Suffix, Insert.

IMPORTANT: You can also specify some extra characters in the property < > tag. For instance, "<(Subject) - >" will add the Subject and the - , but only if the subject is not empty. If (Subject) is empty, the whole tag < > will be empty. This is different from using "<(subject)> -". In this case - will always be added even if the file does not have a subject.

File Properties as Dates and Numbers

If you want to add a file property to a file name as a date or as a number, use the property formatting markers.

# will format a property as a number. If a file property value has numbers and letters, the letters will be ignored.
$ will format a property as a date, according to the date and time formatting options as specified in Auto-Date (8).

For instance :
Prefix : <($System.Photo.DateTaken) - > will add the date taken as prefix followed by - , formatted according to values in Auto-Date (8).
Suffix : < - (#ISO speed)> might add " - 100" as suffix. The file property is added as number only.
Suffix : < - (ISO speed)> might add " - ISO100" as suffix. The file property is added as a text string.

[Admin]

So I think you can use that track number as a file property.
Use <(#)> in Add 7.
Activate the option 'Extract Windows File Properties' from the Renaming Options menu.
You can also use <(#)> for the custom column.

Using the Custom Column
The custom column of the file list in Bulk Rename Utility is a column whose content can be defined by the user using tags.
You can set the content of this column from the Display Options -> List menu.

The following tags can be used:
· Windows File Properties tags. For example: <(System.Photo.CameraManufacturer)>, <(System.Image.HorizontalSize)>, <(Title)>, etc.
· Version 2 EXIF tags. For example: <(exif:ImageWidth)>, <(exif:ImageResolution)>, <(exif:Software)>, etc.
· Hash tags. For example: <(hash:crc32)>, <(hash:md5)>,<(hash:sha1)>, etc.

Multiple tags can also be used, for example: <(Title)> - <(exif:ImageResolution)>.

The items in the file list can be sorted under this column by clicking on the column header.

[Admin]

If you use BRU in a commercial environment, please purchase a commercial license
https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Buy.php
This helps supporting the software and continuous development and updates. thank you

[KarenSMO]

Thanks so much for that additional info! I have good news and bad news about my results putting all that great info to good use. So I'm now able to display the info from the WE # column in the BRU window, which is awesome. Since the renamed files must correlate with that number, it's great to be able to align it next to the Name column and use it as a reference to ensure the numbering sequence will be correct. But unfortunately, it still does not eliminate the necessity of ensuring that the files are sorted by the WE # in WE before switching over to BRU for renaming.

In BRU, the Custom column with the WE # property is treated like text, so sorting by that column will result in ...
1
10
11
2
3
... etc. And that will, of course, mess up the renaming sequence. I was also able to use the # property to populate the prefix field in Window (7), which was great, sort of. It can extract the # number, but it's not able to pad it with leading zeros, which will be a problem when the file reaches its ultimate destination.

I haven't had time to explore whether you can use regular expressions in Window (7) and whether there is something that can be done in that realm to pad the single-digit numbers with leading zeros. But I did wonder if that might be an option.

For now, I'm going to have to continue with the extra step of presorting in WE before switching to BRU. But I'm WAY happy to be able to display the WE # content in the Custom column in BRU. That's a plus for sure!

Thank you so much for all your help and sticking through this lengthy convo. I appreciate it so much!

-Karen

[Admin]

Try enabling "Logical Sorting" in Display Options -> Sorting, and then re-sort the custom column by clicking on the column header, does that help?