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If you have the need to sort your files in Siren first
before you start modifying them, you could do this:

You can click on the header of each column to sort ascending (click twice to sort descending)
If this is not enough for you as an power user you could try to do this trick:

Step 1)
Use one of the Siren Features to rename an file .... but use this as preview only. (DO NOT CLICK to rename)
%sb                                                =  sort by size
%e                                                  = sort by extension
%b   first -> then Step 2 -> then %e  = sort by name first, then by extension
%dm                                               = sort by modification date
%dm{"%a"}                                    = sort by weekday name (Mo, Th...) of the modification date (needs Siren 2.0)
%dmt(1,2)                                       = sort by the hour of the last modification
%f(s/../,/g)                                      = sort by length of the file name
%R                                                 =  unsorted (randomly)
%N3                                               = sort by the third number in the file name
... and many more ...

Step 2)
now click on the header of the "Future Names" column  to sort for your need. (click twice to sort descending)

Step 3)
Now clear your Expression that you used for sorting. (the files are still in order you sorting them)

Step 4)
Wrote your "real" Expression.

Some hints:
* if you want to use an counter %n AND you have checked the files before.... just un-check and then re-check the selection to get the right "selecting order"
* for to sort by the second word in an file name use e.g. : %b[2] as Expression at step 1)
* for to sort by n-th char use an RegEx like:  %b(s/.{8}(.).+/\1/)
   (replace the digit   '8'   with the char position minus 1 of the char column you want to sort by.)
    EXAMPLE:   
                  Order  number 123D.txt
                  Order  number 124E.txt
                  Order  number 125A.txt
                  1234567890123456
                                 1
                  I have the need to sort at the 17-th char so i have to use the digit 16  ...  because of how my RegEx is composed.

If you use other tricks please share them with us ;-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                             Siren is a freeware file renaming program
                                               - portable, highly flexible, powerfully -
                                          If it's looking tricky it's easy to rename with Siren.
                                          http://www.scarabee-software.net/en/siren.html

Standard with 'U' modifier

EXAMPLE:         important PRIO1 document NEW.txt
EXPRESSION:   %Ub
RESULT:          Important Prio1 Document New.txt

This mofier change all chars to lower and then  makes the very first char of each word upper.

But i didn't want all the rest lower since i have important "remarks" in the file name which should keep as they are.
So i use an (long) RegEx to find the very first letter in each word and make them upper only, leaving the rest letters in the word as they are.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Extended with RegEx
(Note: this is an first quickly try, YMMV, could be not guarantee correct results always)

EXAMPLE:         important PRIO1 document NEW.txt
EXPRESSION:   %b(s/\ba/A/g)(s/\bb/B/g)(s/\bc/C/g)(s/\bd/D/g)(s/\be/E/g)(s/\bf/F/g)(s/\bg/G/g)(s/\bh/H/g)
(s/\bi/I/g)(s/\bj/J/g)(s/\bk/K/g)(s/\bl/L/g)(s/\bm/M/g)(s/\bn/N/g)(s/\bo/O/g)(s/\bp/P/g)(s/\bq/Q/g)(s/\br/R/g)
(s/\bs/S/g)(s/\bt/T/g)(s/\bu/U/g)(s/\bv/V/g)(s/\bw/W/g)(s/\bx/X/g)(s/\by/Y/g)(s/\bz/Z/g)

(Note: you have to join the three EXPRESSION lines  into one very long line)

Result :   Important PRIO1 Document NEW.txt    (as expected)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Extended with improved  RegEx
(Note: this is an first quickly try, YMMV, could be not guarantee correct results always)

To shorten the long EXPRESSION
i try to find an short RegEx like
%b( s/ \b ([a-z]) /  \U \1  /g)

EXPLANATION:
%b         Siren:     modifier to refer to the base of the file name
s/           RegEx:   search
\b           RegEx:  modifier to find the word boundary
( ...)       RegEx:   group that what you search for into an group you can back reference to later
[a-z]      RegEx:   the POSIX group of all lower case chars: a,b,c,d,e,f....x,y,z
/            RegEx:   set the 'replace with' apart from the 'search for'
\U          RegEx:   All (first char only, i think ) Chars Upper Case
\1          RegEx:   back reference to group number one
/g          RegEx:   search 'global'  instead of the first occurrence only

EXAMPLE:         important PRIO1 document NEW.txt
EXPRESSION:   %b(s/\b([a-z])/\U\1/g)
RESULT:           Important PRIO1 Document NEW.txt

--
Thanks to Boost for the fine Regular Expression Engine.  => http://scarabee.software.free.fr/forum/ … php?id=131
Thanks to rplr  for making such an great renamer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                             Siren is a freeware file renaming program
                                               - portable, highly flexible, powerfully -
                                          If it's looking tricky it's easy to rename with Siren.
                                          http://www.scarabee-software.net/en/siren.html

Online

Siren itself use the Boost.Regex engine.
Read more about here
Boost.Regex Perl Regular Expression Syntax and the format string

Here are some help in general about Regular Expressions:

Regular Expression HOWTO A.M. Kuchling

Perl Regular Expression Tutorial

A nice one sheet overview about the syntax (PDF file)

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/services/ … regex.html

http://regular-expressions.info/reference.html

http://www.regxlib.com/Default.aspx

blogging community devoted to the topic of regular expressions

dead ==> Starmerj's Perl RegExp Crib Sheet

PDF: RegEx QuickSheet

Something in german:

Reguläre Ausdrücke in The Bat!     auf Deutsch

nicht wissenschaftlicher Workshop für Regular Expressions

Online test:
Excellent RegEx evaluator, useful for RegEx's that'll run in JavaScript.

An very minimalist online Ajax-based ASP.NET site
-

Invert elements, delete some

If you want to exchange some part of an file name, maybe
  from "Song-Artist.mp3" to "Artist-Song.mp3"
  or from "Name,Given name.doc" to "Given name,Name.doc"
  then read this:

For example

   From:
   Song Title 1 - Singer - Site.mp3
   Title 2 - Singer.mp3

   To:
   Singer - Song Title 1.mp3
   Singer - Title 2.mp3

   Use the expression:
   %b[2] - %b[1].%e

How does it work ?

   The "[]" modifier "splits" the associated string in array elements
   following the characters specified in "Options/Modifications" (or given as second parameter to "[]").

   Each "substring" is reachable through its index.

   In this case, if '-' is one of the separators in "Options/Modifications":
   %b     gives "Song Title 1 - Singer - Site"
   %b[1]  gives "Song Title 1"
   %b[2]  gives "Singer"
   %b[3]  gives "Site"

   if the index is negative, the numbering start from the end:
   %b[-1] gives "Site"
   %b[-2] gives "Singer"
   %b[-3] gives "Song Title 1"

   %e, the file extension is "mp3"

   So, following the expression on "Song Title 1 - Singer - Site.mp3":
   %b[2]                     gives "Singer"                                  [part 2 of the original name]
   %b[2] -                   gives "Singer - "                              [we add an - sign]
   %b[2] - %b[1]         gives "Singer - Song Title 1"             [we add the first part from the original name]
   %b[2] - %b[1].        gives "Singer - Song Title 1."            [we add an dot to set the extension apart]
   %b[2] - %b[1].%e   gives "Singer - Song Title 1.mp3"      [we add the original extension by %e ,  an * sign would also fit]

----------------
For the example
"Name, Given name.doc" to "Given name, Name.doc"
add the comma sign to "Options/Modifications".
The standard character specified in "Options/Modifications" is an - sign.

But we can also add an second parameter to "[]" on the fly.

For from "Name, Given name.doc"
to "Given name, Name.doc"

use the expression %b[2,","], %b[1,","].*

The ","   in [2,","]   tells Siren to use the coma as  separator too.

So for  "Name,Given name.doc"
%b[2]  gives nothing because the standard splitting character is an - . And we didn't have them in the original name.
%b[2,","]                   gives    "Given name"
%b[2,","],                  gives    "Given name,"                       [we add an coma,  add an trailing blank if you want to set Given name and Name apart]
%b[2,","],%b[1,","]     gives   "Given name,Name"               [we add the first part of the original name]
%b[2,","],%b[1,","].    gives   "Given name,Name."              [we add an dot]
%b[2,","],%b[1,","].*  gives   "Given name,Name.doc"         [we add the original extension]

   For more details just download Siren at http://www.scarabee-software.net/en/siren.html and consult the help.
   No installation needed, unzip and run.    <Here> you can see some screen shots of Siren.

Extract only the end of a string

   From:
   A0B1C2DE_0201.jpg
   A1B#0302.gif

   To:
   0201.jpg
   0302.gif

   Use the expression:
   %f(-8)

How does it work ?
   The "()" modifier permits the extraction of a part of the string it is associated to.
     Its first parameter is the starting position of this extraction,
     an optional second parameter specifies the number of characters to extract. [e.g. %f(1,4)]
     If it's not given, the extraction is done until the end.

Which value to choose as starting position ?
   It depends on the file we examine.

     10 would be the starting position for the first

   1234567890
   A0B1C2DE_0201.jpg
   
   
     and 5 would be the starting position for the second ...

   12345
   A1B#0302.gif

In fact, we only need the last 8 characters.
     If Siren could provide us such an feature that would help us a lot!

    
It would be interesting to specify
     that the number of the first character to extract
     is relative to the end and not the beginning of the string.
    
     Siren manages this with "negative" numbers.
   For example, with "ABCDEF":
   %b(2,1)  gives "B" : positive start, so relative to the beginning
   %b(-2,1) gives "E" : negative start, so relative to the end

   More clearly, -8 "alone" will specify: "the 8 last characters"

Let's test this:
   %f is the full file name

   So, following the expression for "A1B#0302.gif":
   %f     gives "A1B#0302.gif"
   %f(-8) gives "0302.gif"

   And for A0B1C2DE_0201.jpg
   %f     gives   "A0B1C2DE_0201.jpg"
   %f(-8) gives   "0201.jpg"

   --
   For more details just download Siren at http://www.scarabee-software.net/en/siren.html and consult the help.
   No installation needed, unzip and run. Siren stores it settings into an ini file.   <Here> you can see some screen shots of Siren.
   Enjoy Siren, the powerfully portable freeware renamer.

Change the case (uppercase/lowercase)

From:
   SONG TITLE.MP3

   To:
   Song title.mp3

   Use the expression:
   %Lf

   How does it work ?
   Between the character '%' and the "name" of the variable you can add a case modifier (upper/lower).
   It only modifies the string it is associated to.
   Four exist. Among them: 'L' sets the first character uppercase and the rest lowercase.
   %f represents the full name of the file.

   So, following the expression:
   %f  gives "SONG TITLE.MP3"
   %Lf gives "Song title.mp3"
   
   -  -  -  -  -
   BTW:
   %lf gives "song title.mp3"
   %Uf give "Song Title.mp3"
   %uf gives "SONG TITLE.MP3" (has no effect in this case sinse the file name is upper case already)
   

   --
   For more details just download Siren at http://www.scarabee-software.net/en/siren.html and consult the help.
   No installation needed, unzip and run. Siren stores it settings into an ini file.   <Here> you can see some screen shots of Siren.
   Enjoy Siren, the powerfully portable freeware renamer.

I don't know if i can make myself clear or how hard is this to code...

...but could Siren execute the code of an scripting language
and execute this for all the selected files and rename this file like the code says?

I think therefor Siren must provide some keywords like
@b for basename
@e for extension
@p for the path
which we can use in the code as variables.

In the code i would work with this variables
var = split(@b, " ")
...

and give my result back to Siren which display my result as the future name.

Well, don't know if this is possible or not ,.... just an idea for later use maybe.