You have a folder of PDFs called scan_0012.pdf, invoice (3).pdf and document.pdf, and the thing you'd actually like in each name (an invoice number, a client, a reference) is printed right there on page one. Opening forty files and retyping their names by hand is the kind of job nobody does twice.
Rename PDF reads the text on a page of each file and builds a new name from a pattern you set. The files are read in your browser and not uploaded, and their content isn't changed.
How renaming by content works
Most PDFs made from a computer (exported from Word, generated by accounting software, saved from a browser) contain real text. Each piece of text is stored with its position on the page. Rename PDF reads the page you choose, groups the text pieces into lines by their height on the page, sorts the lines from top to bottom, and keeps the first 10.
You then tell it which text to use: a line number, or a box drawn on the page. The same choice is applied to every file in the batch. That's the whole trick, and it's also the main limit. It works beautifully when the files share a layout, like invoices from one supplier or reports from one template. It works badly on a random pile of documents.
Scanned PDFs are a different story. A scan is a picture of a page with no text in it at all, so there's nothing to read. The tool tells you: "No text was found on this page of scan_0012.pdf. It may be a scan. Run OCR first, or type a name below." Run the files through OCR PDF first, which adds an invisible text layer (the guide to making a scanned PDF searchable explains how), then rename the OCR'd copies.
The name pattern and its tags
The "Name pattern" box starts as [TEXT]. You can type fixed text around the tags and click tags to add them:
- [TEXT]: the text picked from the page.
- [BASENAME]: the current file name, without .pdf.
- [TITLE]: the Title stored in the PDF's document properties. Often empty, sometimes junk.
- [DATE]: today's date as YYYY-MM-DD.
- [TIMESTAMP]: today's date plus the current time.
- [FILENUMBER]: the file's position in the list, 1, 2, 3.
- [PAGES]: the file's page count.
So "Invoice [TEXT] [DATE]" might give Invoice 48213 2026-10-04.pdf.
[DATE] is the date you rename the files, not a date printed in the document. It's easy to assume otherwise. If you want the invoice date in the name, point [TEXT] at it on the page instead.
Choosing the text: line or area
Under "Text for [TEXT]" you have two choices.
"Line" lists the first lines of the page as "Line 1", "Line 2" and so on, and you click the one you want. The same line number is used in every file. That's fine when the layout never changes, but it's fragile. If one customer's address takes four lines and another's takes three, everything below shifts by one and half your files get named after a street.
"Area on page" shows the page and lets you drag a box around the text you want. Any text whose centre falls inside the box is used, and the same area is read in every file. The box is stored relative to the page size, so it lands in the same spot on every file with that layout. For invoices, statements and forms, this is the one I'd use. Draw the box a bit larger than the text so small shifts don't push it out.
"Page" sets which page is read, in every file. Usually it's 1, but a cover page might mean the useful text is on page 2.
Renaming a batch step by step
- Open Rename PDF and drop in your PDFs. You can keep adding files to the same batch.
- Set the "Name pattern", clicking tags to insert them.
- Under "Text for [TEXT]", choose "Line" or "Area on page", set "Page", and pick a line or draw the box.
- Read the new names under "New file name". Click a file's row to make it the one shown in the preview, which helps when checking an odd one.
- To override a single file, type a name into its box. That name is used as typed instead of the pattern.
- Optionally open "More options": "Letter case" (As on the page, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Title Case) changes only the [TEXT] part, and "Spaces" can keep spaces or replace them with - or _.
- Click "Rename & download". One file downloads as a PDF. Several come as a ZIP called renamed-pdfs.zip.
What happens to the names and the files
The tool cleans every name so it's valid on Windows, macOS and Linux. Slashes, colons, asterisks, question marks, double quotes, angle brackets and the pipe character are removed. Runs of spaces become one, and trailing dots and spaces are dropped. The [TEXT] part is cut to 100 characters and the whole name is kept to a sensible length. If two files would end up with the same name, the second becomes name-2.pdf, the third name-3.pdf, so nothing is overwritten. If a name comes out empty, the original is used.
That character cleaning has one side effect worth knowing. A date printed as 03/10/2026 loses its slashes and becomes 03102026, which is readable but sorts badly. If dates matter, read the date from the page and type a cleaner pattern around it, or rename those few by hand.
Unprotected files come out byte-for-byte the same. Only the name changes. A file with a password or editing restrictions is the exception: it's unlocked when you add it, so the renamed copy is saved without that protection. A website can't rename files sitting on your disk, though, so what you get is renamed copies. Your originals stay where they were, under their old names, until you delete them.
Where it struggles
Some PDFs store text in odd ways: a letter at a time, or with the visual order scrambled. The lines in the list then look jumbled, and an area box is usually the better bet. Rotated text is read too, but the line list follows whichever direction most of the text on the page runs, so a sideways label on an upright page won't appear there.
Mixed batches are the other weak spot. If you have invoices from three suppliers, do three passes, one per layout, rather than trying to find a single line number that suits them all.
Also useful: OCR PDF · Edit metadata
