I was going to ask if anyone had heard of software that carries out the functions listed below.

THEN I STOPPED AND THOUGHT ABOUT IT!!!

And realised that if I took one step BEFORE another one, the renamer software I use now will carry out this task very well.

So I didn't really need to type all this in, but continued as it's an object lesson to carry out the action in the Subject line BEFORE bursting into print.

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Does anyone know of a program for Windows XP - or a macro within Excel - to accomplish the following:

1.  Scan/read a list of same-named and numbered filenames and identify numbers missing.
2.  Get files from a similarly named and numbers file list, and rename them according to the numbers missing from the first list.

I deal with thousands of image files named with widely varying filenames: 3246563_7354.jpg, gd7_766543OP.jpg, demo756.jpg or whatever the owner has named them.

I use a file renamer to name them similar to this:  tractor-0001.jpg ...to.... tractor-9999.jpg

Then I use an duplicate image finder and delete .. um .. duplicates.

After that I can't use my renamer software to fill in the missing numbers as it tells me "Number already exists."
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Solution:

If I use the duplicate image finder first, I can then rename to my heart's content in consecutive order.

Many thanks guys, you've helped enormously.  ;D   ;)   :-[

Disclaimer:  My spelling of some words are how it's done where I live - it's NOT wrong.