Renamer - 4.0

I've been using this program for a number of years in our production environment to trim extraneous characters from files names before uploading them to an ftp site. As far as I can see it's still the only bulk renamer that supports grep, which allows multiple changes in a single pass. Combined with saved presets this program has saved countless hours of repetitive work!

Easy to use, top features, super flexible. Most of the renaming apps lose the "Comments" when you rename, This gives you a preference choice to keep "Comments" or not. This Previews the new changed names and also allows you to undo them, which most other do not. I tried it with many files and bought it immediately to keep them in business. It also keeps the original modification dates of the renamed files. Great app.

... NameChanger, FileRenamer and BatchRename'em.

Interface is clumsy and it doesn't seem to filter things I need it to.

File Renamer 1.0 is better and 1/2 the price.

Although I consider this to be the most time-saving app I have, I agree it's not worth 26 bucks. I'd say it's worth $10, maybe $15. Even though it has saved me a lot of time and aggravation, there are other apps available.

Has our rampant inflation now spread from food & fuel to software, or is the developer getting greedy? Is this a result of the Dollar-Euro parity? (the developer is in Austria).

I also HATE the new layout.
It was much more convenient having all the controls in one compact area in the corner. Now you have to scroll from the bottom of the window to the top and back. At its default size on my iBook we're talking 6.5 inches from the add/remove buttons to the tabs. Even further if you use it fullscreen as I do. That's a LOT of unnecessary distance to travel! I could easily rack up an additional 10 feet in mousing with just 6 folders, due to the new layout. I have to say that the new design does look a bit nicer overall, but it's less functional, and that's what I was paying for, not glitter & paint.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I never did figure out how to save the presets on the previous version, and still can't in the new version. There is no mention of presets in the minimal Help guide included.
It looks so simple, yet I've tried repeatedly to save the settings, but it never sticks. Every time I choose a saved preset, it reverts to the default setting in the Remove tab of 1 & 1.

I encountered a problem a few days ago, which is actually a Mac issue, not something R4M did wrong: I mistakenly added a decimal to the front of several file names, causing them to become "invisible". Because they were invisible, Finder wouldn't allow me to rename them again, either directly in the Finder or in Renamer4Mac. Thankfully, I use Pathfinder and was able to change the names back. If I weren't using Pathfinder, I don't know how I would have renamed them.

I think Renamer4Mac should display a confirmation box when a user tries to perform an action that could negatively affect the files being re-named, such as removing their extension or making them invisible.