Rename a PDF From Its Own Text
Bulk naming is a chore that the documents can do themselves: the first lines usually contain the name, the number or the date you would have typed.
What this tool does
Names the file from its own contents: the first lines of text on the first page become the name, following a pattern of [TEXT1], [TEXT2] and [BASENAME].
How it works
Open the file, check the text the tool reads, and arrange the pattern — [TEXT2]-[TEXT1] when the date comes before the title. A scan has no text until it is OCR'd, so run OCR first if the pattern comes out empty.
- Choose the PDF, or drag it onto the page.
- Set name pattern — the settings below explain what each one changes.
- Run the tool and download the result.
Settings that decide the result
- Name pattern — [TEXT1], [TEXT2] … are lines of text found on the first page, [BASENAME] is the file's own name and [DATE] today's date.
When to reach for it
- A scanner produced a folder of numbered files. Name each one from the text on its first page.
- Filenames must follow a house pattern. Compose it from [TEXT1], [TEXT2] and the original name.
Questions we get
What are the name patterns?
Use [BASENAME] to keep the original name and wrap anything around it — like [BASENAME]-final — and the download arrives named exactly so.
Where it fits
The tools people usually open next to Rename:
- OCR — Convert PDF scans to searchable text and PDFs. Extract text from scans
- Workflows — Execute series of tasks on PDF documents. Configure tool chains to process PDFs
- Delete Pages — Remove pages from a PDF document.
Every tool works on a copy, so the original file is never modified. Uploads are stored under an unguessable id and deleted automatically two hours after you last open them; nothing is listed, shared or indexed. More on the security page.