Often when we work in business, and sometimes in a personal situation as well, we will be required to perform periodic, repetitive and routine computing tasks. These routines (copying files, renaming files, adding rows to spreadsheets, etc.) are often done manually by users who end up regretting them as a waste of their precious time. However, by automating these repetitive tasks, we can reduce frustration and dramatically improve productivity.
SEE: The CIO’s guide to low-code platforms (TechRepublic Premium)
Power Automate, which is available free for Microsoft Windows 11 users, can help automate repetitive tasks by providing an easy-to-use platform for low-code solutions. This underutilized tool is also available to users running Windows 10, if they also have a Microsoft 365 subscription. Power Automate is Microsoft’s automation solution available to everyone. It relies on drag-and-drop code creation and is much more powerful than many users may understand or appreciate.
Use Power Automate to consistently rename files
With this brief tutorial, we’ll show you the basics of building a workable Power Automate solution using its low-code build environment. For our example, we’ll create a solution that systematically renames a set of files in a folder, including subfolders, based on a set of parameters and variables that we define by choosing from simple drop-down menus.
SEE: Research: Increased use of low-code/no-code platforms poses no threat to developers (TechRepublic Premium)
If you are using Windows 11, type automate power in the desktop search tool and select it from the results to load Power Automate. If you’re using Microsoft 365, you’ll need to sign in to the Microsoft 365 website first and install the desktop version from there. If you’ve already created and saved Power Automate solutions, you’ll see them listed in the app’s dashboard, otherwise you’ll see this welcome message (Figure A).
For our example, click + New Stream to start the build process. Give your new flow a descriptive name, then click Create to access the main development screen, as shown in Figure B.
As you can see from the list of available options on the left side of the screen, there are dozens of potential actions that can be taken when developing solutions in Power Automate.
For our example, we will rename a set of files located in a specific subfolder (Figure C). We will systematically add _2022 at the end of each filename using a software crawler that we create in Power Automate.
Since we’ll be working with a set of files in a folder, we’ll need to navigate to those folders first, so we’ll start by expanding the Folders action item in the left navigation bar. We will then drag and drop the Get Files In Folder item into the Subflow section, which will then bring up a dialog screen where we can set our variables (Figure D).
The first box allows us to define which folder we want to work with, so we click on the folder icon and navigate to our sample folder. The second box asks us to include a filter for our files, but for our example we want to rename all files, so we leave the * as a generic filter for all files.
Since we’ll also be applying our changes to subfolders, we’ll toggle this button to the enabled position.
Figure E shows us what this filled screen looks like. Note that the output of this action will be a variable named Files, which was created by default. We could change that name if we wanted, but it’s fine as is for our purposes.
Click Save to complete this part of the routine. Our software crawler will now fetch all files from our designated folder and subfolders. The next step is to systematically rename these filenames.
In the Actions navigation bar, expand Files, then drag and drop the Rename File(s) item into the Feeds section under our previous routine, where you will be presented with another set of variable settings, as shown in Figure F.
The first box asks us which files we want to rename. This is where the power of automation and Power Automate comes into play. We want to rename the files extracted by the routine we defined in the previous step, so we click on the variable icon ({x }) and select Files(G-figure).
In the next box (H-figure), we need to decide which renaming scheme we are going to apply. For our example, we will add _2022 at the end of each filename and keep the extension as it is.
As you can see, we have chosen to do nothing if we encounter a file with a name that already exists. And, since we don’t need the output for another step in our routine, we decided not to produce another variable. Click Save when you are satisfied with your answers to the questions.
Our software robot example is now complete. Click Run to start the automated routine, then check the results in our records as shown in I figure.
Of course, there are many tools available that can rename files; however, Power Automate is a robust, free, low-code tool that can be used to automate tasks in an operating environment consisting of Windows, Microsoft 365, and Azure.
Power Automate can work with Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and other Microsoft software to help users update reports, edit documents, respond to emails and a host of other routine tasks. Power Automate is a currently underutilized tool, and users who want to stand out from their peers need to learn how to use it.
Often when we work in business, and sometimes in a personal situation as well, we will be required to perform periodic, repetitive and routine computing tasks. These routines (copying files, renaming files, adding rows to spreadsheets, etc.) are often done manually by users who end up regretting them as a waste of their precious time. However, by automating these repetitive tasks, we can reduce frustration and dramatically improve productivity.
SEE: The CIO’s guide to low-code platforms (TechRepublic Premium)
Power Automate, which is available free for Microsoft Windows 11 users, can help automate repetitive tasks by providing an easy-to-use platform for low-code solutions. This underutilized tool is also available to users running Windows 10, if they also have a Microsoft 365 subscription. Power Automate is Microsoft’s automation solution available to everyone. It relies on drag-and-drop code creation and is much more powerful than many users may understand or appreciate.
Use Power Automate to consistently rename files
With this brief tutorial, we’ll show you the basics of building a workable Power Automate solution using its low-code build environment. For our example, we’ll create a solution that systematically renames a set of files in a folder, including subfolders, based on a set of parameters and variables that we define by choosing from simple drop-down menus.
SEE: Research: Increased use of low-code/no-code platforms poses no threat to developers (TechRepublic Premium)
If you are using Windows 11, type automate power in the desktop search tool and select it from the results to load Power Automate. If you’re using Microsoft 365, you’ll need to sign in to the Microsoft 365 website first and install the desktop version from there. If you’ve already created and saved Power Automate solutions, you’ll see them listed in the app’s dashboard, otherwise you’ll see this welcome message (Figure A).
For our example, click + New Stream to start the build process. Give your new flow a descriptive name, then click Create to access the main development screen, as shown in Figure B.
As you can see from the list of available options on the left side of the screen, there are dozens of potential actions that can be taken when developing solutions in Power Automate.
For our example, we will rename a set of files located in a specific subfolder (Figure C). We will systematically add _2022 at the end of each filename using a software crawler that we create in Power Automate.
Since we’ll be working with a set of files in a folder, we’ll need to navigate to those folders first, so we’ll start by expanding the Folders action item in the left navigation bar. We will then drag and drop the Get Files In Folder item into the Subflow section, which will then bring up a dialog screen where we can set our variables (Figure D).
The first box allows us to define which folder we want to work with, so we click on the folder icon and navigate to our sample folder. The second box asks us to include a filter for our files, but for our example we want to rename all files, so we leave the * as a generic filter for all files.
Since we’ll also be applying our changes to subfolders, we’ll toggle this button to the enabled position.
Figure E shows us what this filled screen looks like. Note that the output of this action will be a variable named Files, which was created by default. We could change that name if we wanted, but it’s fine as is for our purposes.
Click Save to complete this part of the routine. Our software crawler will now fetch all files from our designated folder and subfolders. The next step is to systematically rename these filenames.
In the Actions navigation bar, expand Files, then drag and drop the Rename File(s) item into the Feeds section under our previous routine, where you will be presented with another set of variable settings, as shown in Figure F.
The first box asks us which files we want to rename. This is where the power of automation and Power Automate comes into play. We want to rename the files extracted by the routine we defined in the previous step, so we click on the variable icon ({x }) and select Files(G-figure).
In the next box (H-figure), we need to decide which renaming scheme we are going to apply. For our example, we will add _2022 at the end of each filename and keep the extension as it is.
As you can see, we have chosen to do nothing if we encounter a file with a name that already exists. And, since we don’t need the output for another step in our routine, we decided not to produce another variable. Click Save when you are satisfied with your answers to the questions.
Our software robot example is now complete. Click Run to start the automated routine, then check the results in our records as shown in I figure.
Of course, there are many tools available that can rename files; however, Power Automate is a robust, free, low-code tool that can be used to automate tasks in an operating environment consisting of Windows, Microsoft 365, and Azure.
Power Automate can work with Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and other Microsoft software to help users update reports, edit documents, respond to emails and a host of other routine tasks. Power Automate is a currently underutilized tool, and users who want to stand out from their peers need to learn how to use it.