Renamer4Mac - An easy to use batch file renamer

Dec 15, '04 08:55:00AM

Contributed by: robg

Renamer4Mac icon The macosxhints Rating:
8 of 10
[Score: 8 out of 10]

It's one of those things that should be easier than it is -- you want to rename a bunch of files in the Finder, using a consistent pattern -- for example, changing 'IMG_0001.JPG,' etc. into 'Party Pic1.JPG', etc. There are many ways to do this, including a few that have been mentioned here before (Pixture Studio, Photoshop / Elements, A Better Finder Rename, and a one-line shell script). Renamer4Mac is yet another way to do the same thing, but more options aren't always a bad thing -- and it's free (donation suggested).

Renamer4Mac has a number of renaming methods -- search and replace (using case sensitivity and/or regular expressions, if you wish), insert/overwrite text, remove characters, renumber files, and convert case. In all cases, you can protect the extension from being modified. The interface is quite clean, with a simple toolbar featuring a delete icon, a preferences button, and plus and minus buttons for adding or removing files and folders from the list (you can, for instance, rename files using the same rule even if those files live in different folders). In the Preferences, you can choose which style of path display you prefer (/new/style or old:style), whether to rename files using the system directly or the Finder (system is much faster, but you'll lose any comments you may have added), and you can enable a contextual menu add-on ("Rename with Renamer4Mac") that makes it really easy to batch rename a selection from the Finder.

Renamer4Mac has some limitations -- you can't, for instance, apply more than one rule in one pass, so if you want to, for instance, replace IMG with Party Pic and renumber the images, you'll have to do it in two steps, and you can't save often-used rules as standards for future use. If you need super-high-powered renaming features, then A Better Finder Rename is probably your best bet. But if your needs are relatively simple and you're looking for an easy-to-use and inexpensive (free!) solution, Renamer4Mac is worth a look.

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