Use Safari to create numbered duplicates of files

May 05, '09 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: HairyPotter

Imagine you have some files named document.txt, picture.png and music.mp3 in your Downloads folder, and you want to make copies of these files with another name, in order to preserve them in some way. You can simply use Finder's duplicate function, of course, and end with filenames ending in the word copy, or you may do the following.

Open Safari, open its Downloads window (Window » Downloads), and drag ythe files to duplicate into Safari's Download window. If the files already exist in the Downloads folder, Safari will "download" them again, but add numbers to the filenames to keep them unique. For example, document.txt will be saved again as document-1.txt, then document-2.txt, etc. This trick can thus be used to create sequentially-named files.

If the original file is not in the Downloads directory, this tip can help creating duplicates of files, instead of moving, if you are dragging from the same disk (as you can do if you hold the Option key down).

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