The following instructions, images, illustrations, and outline are based on the use of a PC computer operating under the Microsoft Windows 11 operating system. The details and images in these instructions may vary if you are using a different computer, operating system, or electronic device; for example, if you are using a PC computer operating under the Windows 10 operating system, or if you are using an Apple/Macintosh device. The general concepts and procedures should apply to any similar device, however.

We will use the pictures from the ‘Peanuts Wisdom’ example project in the illustrations for the following instructions. You can view the ‘Peanuts Wisdom’ example project (and other example projects) by clicking here.

INSTRUCTION

ILLUSTRATION

From time to time, it may be convenient/necessary to change the name of a file or a number of files. We describe the process for changing a file’s name here.

In the example shown, the files are displayed in their ’Large icons’ format.

For the set of (picture) files shown, we will change the name of the file with the current name ‘Worrying Won’t Stop.jpg’. To change its name, click on the file. This will cause its icon and name to be highlighted as shown.

To change the indicated file name, click on the file again (a second click). This will cause the highlighting of its name to change to look like that shown. Note that only the part of the file name to the left of period/decimal point is highlighted. This is the part of the name that we will change to ‘peanuts 1’ as its new name.

Now type in the new file name (‘peanuts 1’) and press the <Enter> key on the keyboard or click away from the selected file.

The file name will now have been changed to ‘peanuts 1’ as shown. Notice also that the (picture) files have changed positions in the list to correspond to the change in the new name of the file.

DO NOT CHANGE OR REMOVE THE FILE EXTENSION (the part of the full file name to the right of the period/decimal point). Also, DO NOT remove the period/decimal point that separates the file name from its extension from the full file name.

The name-changing procedure can be repeated until all the file names have been changed as desired. For example:
peanuts 2
peanuts 3
peanuts 4
.etc

When finished, the icon/file format for the File Explorer page should look something like the picture on the right with all files having their new names and corresponding new positions in the file sequence.

We will not show the process here, but note that the name(s) of a folder(s) can be changed using a similar procedure. Folder names do not have the period/decimal point and file extension (the part of a file name to the right of the period/decimal point) as part of their names, however.