Try pyrenamer.

It's not integrated with nautilus, but it gets the job done. Here is a review.

Thunar (part of XFCE) also has a renamer that you can run separately.

There seems to be a project on launchpad called nautilus-renamer. You can install it by running make install once you download the script and untar it. It seems to have some functionalities or if you do know some programming may be you could just enhance it to your need as it is just a python script.

In the command line, to rename a single file the command is simply

mv file1.txt file2.txt

If you want to do it in batch, you'll probably want to do it via a script. If you provide more details I or someone else can probably whip one up for you. That said, a script to append stuff to a file might look like this:

#!/bin/bash
for file in *
do
    # separate the file name from its extension
    if [[ $file == *.* ]]; then
      ext="${file##*.}"
      fname="${file%.*}"
      mv "$file" "${fname}_APPENDSTUFFHERE.$ext"
    else
      mv "$file" "${file}_APPENDSTUFFHERE"
    fi
done

Depending on exactly how you need things renamed this will likely be tweaked, for instance if you have specific renaming rules to follow. (Personally I'd do this via a Perl script since my bash-foo is not that great, but that's just me.)

Note that I got the separation of filename and extension from a previously asked question.

In case you want to do it without command line, similarly to what you have been doing in Windows, use right arrow key instead of tab key. This will select the next file just as tab does in Windows.

Not really the same question as How can rename many files at once? but I'm going to suggest the same program that I suggested in that answer: qmv.

qmv is a handy tool from the renameutils package. It enables you to use your favorite text editor to rename files. Combined with the power of vim, you have an excellent renaming utility.

I usually invoke it like qmv -f do in the dir where I want to rename a bunch of files. Or if I want to rename recursively qmv -R -f do.

Whenever I have the need to rename multiple files, I always fall back on qmv (and vim).

http://www.nongnu.org/renameutils/

If the only suitable option is renaming the files manually, a great way to do that is using vidir (in the moreutils package):

sudo add-apt-repository universe && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install moreutils

DESCRIPTION
       vidir allows editing of the contents of a directory in a text editor.
       If no directory is specified, the current directory is edited.

       When editing a directory, each item in the directory will appear on
       its own numbered line. These numbers are how vidir keeps track of what
       items are changed. Delete lines to remove files from the directory, or
       edit filenames to rename files. You can also switch pairs of numbers
       to swap filenames.

       Note that if "-" is specified as the directory to edit, it reads a
       list of filenames from stdin and displays those for editing.
       Alternatively, a list of files can be specified on the command line.

Examples

Renaming files selectively

Current working directory's content:

.
├── bar
├── baz
└── foo

Run vidir, rename the filenames in the lines containing the filenames you wish to rename; hit CTRL+O and CTRL+X:

.
├── bar.bak
├── baz.old
└── foo.new

Switching filenames selectively

Current working directory's content:

.
├── bar
├── baz
└── foo

Current working directory's files' content:

$ for f in *; do printf '- %s:\n\n' "$f"; cat "$f"; echo; done
- bar:

This is bar

- baz:

This is baz

- foo:

This is foo

$ 

Run vidir, switch the numbers in the lines containing the filenames you wish to switch; hit CTRL+O and CTRL+X:

.
├── bar
├── baz
└── foo

$ for f in *; do printf '- %s:\n\n' "$f"; cat "$f"; echo; done
- bar:

This is foo

- baz:

This is bar

- foo:

This is baz

$ 

Removing files selectively

Current working directory's content:

.
├── bar
├── baz
└── foo

Run vidir, remove the lines containing the files you wish to delete; hit CTRL+O and CTRL+X:

.
└── baz

I'm using krename. It is a GUI app. It could read mp3 tags and so on.

It exists as a separate app as well as a part of Krusader.

There's also a rename script - which is a part of standard perl installation (You probably have it installed). Check it out with man rename.