I need a mass file organizing program

[Shinova]

Is there a program that can take thousands of files and mass rename them to a certain format, or search the filenames and replace a certain string in those filenames with something else (ex: rename all files with "blah" in their filenames with "waah" in place of the "blah"), or do all those kinds of things?

[Argosh]

I've done it half-manually.
For example - I have a directory full of jpg-s, about a thousand. In that directory I type at command prompt 'dir *.jpg /B > renam3.bat'
Now 'renam3.bat' contains only names (/B in the dir command) of the jpg-s.
Then I open a new spreadsheet in MSO or OO.
First column is full of copies of 'Ren', second is the contents of 'renam3.bat' and the third is the new filename, lets say 'waah'.
Fourth column is 0-999 and the fifth is the filename extension '.jpg'
Selecting the five columns and copy/paste to replace the contents of 'renam3.bat' gives a basic batch file full of renaming commands. I usually tide it up by search/replaceing empty space and adding " around the filenames. Running the batch file does the thing. Takes some time to do all that but its still better than doing it all manually, one file at a time.

[Pu-239]

The prename program that comes w/ Perl on Linux does the trick. You dual boot, don't you?