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[Phil_C]

About half the music I imported into MC18 have track numbers and a space as part of the name, for example, 01 Hey Jude.wav.  I want to remove the number and space. 

dBpoweramp created these names when I ripped my CDs to harddrive.  So these names were like this before they were imported into MC18.   

These names weren’t a problem until I tried to list them in Audio, Files view in MC18.  They show up in numeric order with 01 listed first, 02 listed second, etc., so I can’t view the songs in a normal ascending alpha order and easily scroll to a specific song. 

There are too many files to change names one at a time. What are my options for changing these tags?   

[jmone]

MC is very good at this.  Select your files then Right Click --> Library Tools --> Rename, Move, & Copy files.  It is based on your meta data and will not only rename the files (and directories if you want) but also update the library.

[fitbrit]

Or if all have 2 digits and a space, you can use the removeleft expression:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php?title=Media_Center_expression_language#RemoveLeft.28.E2.80.A6.29:_Trims_characters_from_the_beginning_of_a_string

eg in the example you gave,

=removeleft([filename, name], 3)

will yield: Hey Jude.wav

You can select as many files as you like.

[Edit] However, a tag based solution is the best and most flexible. Like Astromo mentions, MC can fill fields with information from the file name. So if your track number fields are not filled, you can actually populate this information from the filename. You may then change the filenames as you wish, based on tags.
For MC's sorting purpose though, you might want to remove the track numbers just from the [name] field, rather than the filename itself. The beauty of MC is that you may do both, and if the fields are tagged correctly, you can change your naming or viewing convention any time you like.

[astromo]

MC is very good at this.  Select your files then Right Click --> Library Tools --> Rename, Move, & Copy files.  It is based on your meta data and will not only rename the files (and directories if you want) but also update the library.

Good advice.

More detail here:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Tools

From the original description it sounds like the track numbers haven't been tagged correctly. A fill properties from file name process might help. I question whether you need to remove the track numbers from the file name but everyone has their own approach to filling and meta data.

[Phil_C]

I want to thank all who have responded with help and advice.   Here’s what I have learned and I hope you check me on this and let me know where I might be off base.

I see three tags involved with file names, Name, Filename, and Filename(name).  Here is an example of each:

Filename:  H:\iTunes\iTunes Music\Rubber Soul\Norwegian Wood.wav
Filename(name): Norwegian Wood
Name:  Norwegian Wood

Filename tag is the entire path for the file that includes hard drive, folders, name, and file extension.  It’s the roadmap to find the file.  Filename(name) tag is the name subset of Filename tag.  Name tag is independent of the other two tags and therefore changing it does not change the other two. 

So, remembering I want to remove the first three characters in many names, I just want to change Name tags.  As I understand it, I should not change Filename or Filename(name) tags because that would break the link between MC and the physical location of the file and MC would not be able to find and play the file.

Sound right to you?

Phil_C

[MrC]

Correct.

Here's an overview of MC fields:

   http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/File_Properties_(tags)#Fields