The most commonly used combinations of variable text used for batch renaming are described below.
Filenames Based on When Pictures Were Taken
This kind of renaming is useful when bringing together pictures taken on multiple cameras, when using photos for documentation, and when archiving photos.
Variable text (date as filename): {Y}-{M}-{D}-{h}-{m}-{s}-{C}
Filenames That Include a Counter
Using a counter at the beginning of a filename is a good way to ensure that the custom sorting you have set within Zoner Photo Studio works even outside of it.
For the counter—{C}—you can set a starting value, a step (how much to go up each time), and the number of digits that should be guaranteed by adding zeros at the beginning of the number if necessary (“001,” “002,” etc.)
Variable text (to add a counter just before a filename): {C}-{N}
Filename Making Use of Picture Title
You can use this technique to make files’ contents clear from their filenames. Although just renaming the files by hand would do almost the same, the variable text cited below also includes a counter, so you do not have to order the pictures alphabetically. A name like this is useful when publishing photos on the Web, sending them by email, sharing them, etc.
Variable text (counter, contents of the picture’s Title, then Author fields): {C}-{T}-{A}
You can freely mix variable-text codes and ordinary text—for example “{C} Chicago vacation” to get names like “01 Chicago vacation.”
Warning
If you do not have a serious reason to do otherwise, do not change the file extension (which is normally set to “{E}”). You could irreversibly damage the file by accident. If you change a picture’s extension, it can “disappear” from the Browser.
This is because Zoner Photo Studio (and Windows itself) determines the format of a file based on its extension, and, depending on your program preferences, Zoner Photo Studio may show only certain pictures and hide all other formats. If you do accidentally change a picture’s extension (e.g. from JPG to JPG001) and it disappears, turn on the display of all files under Settings | Preferences | Display and use renaming to change the extension back.