Rearranging patterns

I've searched for this and cannot find an answer...maybe I missed something, but ... Anyway, I have created a list of patterns that start with a series of numbers.... 01, 02, 03 etc., to rename photos for use in a program that will order my photos for a display. When I create new pattern choices or simply want to move them around, I cannot find a way to rearrange that list without editing by deleting and completely starting over with a ton of typing. Question...is there a way to export or copy a list of patterns, edit them elsewhere and then reimport them? Or even better, can I move various patterns up or down on my list to keep them in a logical numerical order.?

---

I assume that you are using the "List replace" method.

There is no way of importing or exporting the list, or rearranging it in place.

A workaround is to use a simple script with the replacements hard-coded.
For example...

var str = item.name;
str = str.replace("old-1","new-1");
str = str.replace("old-2","new-2");
str = str.replace("old-3","new-3");
str = str.replace("old-4","new-4");
etc
return str;

You can use Excel (or similar) to maintain your list and generate the lines of code that you can simply copy and paste into the script code window.

See my comment (#3) at www.advancedrenamer.com/forum_thread?forum_id=10060

---

Reply to #2:
Actually, let me clarify. I'm using "new name" method with a standard set of patterns that I use all the time. If I'm out all day shooting and come home and want to organize my day, I'll rename the photos I took by categories...which also helps me as a way of tagging. I might have 01 - Sunrise-<Inc Nr:1> 02 - Animals-<Inc Nr:1> 03 - Vehicles-<Inc Nr:1> etc. Of course, I need to add to my pattern list all the time because I may discover I need a whole new pattern. When I add it, it goes to the bottom of the list, even though it's prefix number might be an off-shoot of an earlier one. for instance, animals might be too broad and I decide that 02 - Animals-<Inc Nr:1> might need to have some sub categories with... 02b - Animals-dogs-<Inc Nr:1> , 02c - Animals-cats-<Inc Nr:1> , 02d - Animals-horses-<Inc Nr:1> I'd like to find a way to drag and drop or rearrange the list of patterns logically/numerically under my new name method so that I can quickly go right to it to choose patterns when I drag my selected list of photos into the renaming area... otherwise, I'm hunting up and down that list as I try to find which pattern to use

---

Reply to #3:
And thanks for the suggestion and link to the other comment. I'll play with that, too, but mostly I'm taking a hundred or more shots from a day's shoot and trying to rename them... I might have 35 different "barn" photos, taken all day long, and I want to name them 08b - Barns-1.jpg, 08b - Barns-2.jpg, 08b - Barns-3.jpg, 08b - Barns-4.jpg ....... 08b - Barns-35.jpg I select them all and drag them in, quickly choosing 08 -Barns-<Inc Nr:1> and apply and boom, I move on to the next group of similar/category shots and rename them. Having the ability to rearrange the list as I create new categories that make tighter sense to my methods of renaming is what I'm after, even if there was a way to take it out into Excel, rearrange there, and bring it back in. (should there be no method to rearrange within the program itself)

---

Reply to #4:
hmmm, maybe I could maintain my list of pattern names in Excel and rearrange there and then periodically create a new "new name method" and import the newly rearranged csv list and kill the old one. That would probably work... I'll test that.

---