FileSieve 3 is a small program which organizes files and folders into highly configurable destination folders. As with software of its kind it is best used for organizing large amounts of files that accumulate on a system over many download and similar sessions.
The process or work flow of FileSieve 3 is well defined in a five numbered step process (see image). A profile and/or a list of directories can be created, saved and loaded for future sessions. These source folder(s) would contain all the files that will be sorted using FileSieve. Then a destination folder is chosen where the sifted and sorted files will be placed in. The third step is to choose method(s) and if applicable modifiers.
A method, one of 13 that FileSieve 3 supports, defines how the chosen files are sorted and processed. These methods are themselves very configurable and it is very easy to come up with complex criteria to operate on the chosen files. Methods include:
Sorting by attribute: Subfolders in the destination directory will distinguish files that are Read Only, Hidden, Temporary, Offline, Compressed, Normal and more.
Biggest: The biggest file from the source directory is placed in the destination directory.
Consolidate: All Files from the source directory are placed into the root directory of the destination folder.
Date Stamp: Files separated into dated destination folders.
Delimiter: Files sorted based on delimiter characters in their names, for example “-” in the file name.
Extension: Files are separated and sorted based on their extension. Likely the most used feature of the program.
MP3 Tag: MP3 files are sorted based on their tags such as album and song name.
Owner: Files are sorted based on the Windows account or domain they belong to.
Parent Rename: First or biggest file in the source directory is renamed after it’s parent directory name and placed in the destination folder.
Smallest: Opposite of Biggest!
A-Z: 27 directories are created (for file names starting with numbers and those starting with A to Z) and files are placed into them based on their names.
Substring: The user chooses which position of a file name is the ‘StartIndex’ and how many characters to read from there, files are then sorted based on ‘substring’ matches.
Word: Files are sorted based on words contained with their names.
Once method(s) are chosen modifiers can be added to change the way the path, file name or extension of files are written in the destination. These include all lower case, word capitalization and others. Step 4 is where the user chooses to move or copy the source files. Here one can also create a simulation and preview the results in the simulation window. Step 5, the final step, lets the user limit the sorting to files within the ‘root’ of the source directory, to all files or just folders residing in the source directory.
FileSieve 3 should run on all Windows systems, even Windows 95, but requires the .NET Framework 2.0.
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