This tip is more of a reminder (rather than a clever trick) that Photoshop 7.0 comes with the ability to batch rename image files. While it does not completely replace other rename utilities such as the excellent ABetterFinderRename reviewed here, it does provide a nice option if you already own Photoshop 7.0 and have a large number of files to organize.
NOTES
[robg adds: Indeed, Elements has a batch renamer as well. It works more or less as described here (and it's also directly accessible via File -> Batch Processing).]
Say you have a folder of pictures from your digital camera named PIC321.JPG, PIC322.JPG, PIC323.JPG, etc. and you want them renamed to something a bit more descriptive such as ZOOTRIP01.JPG, ZOOTRIP02.JPG, ZOOTRIP03.JPG:
- In Photoshop 7.0, open the newly added 'File Browser' feature.
- From the browser, navigate to the folder containing the files you want to rename and select the images you're interested in. (Either multiple-select a group of files using the usual Shift key method or do nothing to rename all the images in that folder)
- Now control-click (or right-click if using a 2-button mouse) in the browser window and select 'Batch Rename...' from the contextual menu that pops up.
- You'll see a configuration dialog that provides a fairly sophisticated number of options to batch rename files using a new base filename, incrementing sequence numbers, dates, etc. In the case of the aforementioned example, use something like:
ZOOTRIP+2 Digit Serial Number+extension - Click OK and Photoshop will batch rename your files.
NOTES
- This only works with image files that Photoshop recognizes, not all types of files. For general method of batch renaming files within the Finder (without Photoshop) try this.
- It's a bit difficult to describe the batch rename dialog that pops up and the plethora of options it provides without a screenshot. Be sure to check out the Photoshop manual and online help (or Scott's book below) for more info.
- This isn't really a hidden trick, so much as a neat feature Adobe added to PS 7.0 that many owners like myself didn't realize was even there. Thanks to Scott Kelby's excellent The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers' (ISBN 0-7357-1236-0) for pointing this out. Prior to this I'd been using lengthly Unix command-line constructs to achieve the same effect.
[robg adds: Indeed, Elements has a batch renamer as well. It works more or less as described here (and it's also directly accessible via File -> Batch Processing).]
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