Rename Multiple Files/Folders in Mac OS X

Using Automator. Have fun!


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Closed Caption:

what's up guys rhinos tech here with
tech informed by us i want to make a
video that I've wanted to make for a
long time and I've never got around to
it it's about renaming many different
files within the same folder or location
on your hall on your hard drive
solid-state drive whatever renaming many
files within a folder like you could in
windows with Windows you could open a
folder I've got a folder on my desktop
right now called test folder where I've
just put in a whole bunch of seinfeld
episode 2i guess thumbnails for the
episodes that i have and look at the
titles i mean it
seinfeld is it's pretty unorganized so
if i wanted to come in here with Windows
I could select all of them
rename and then just rename it Seinfeld
and have it put a one in parentheses
after dot one dot jpg or whatever
seinfeld dot one dot jpg seinfeld . 2
d.jpg and so on in OS 10 you can't
actually rename more than one time I
have to come over here one by one and
type all of those well if you've got a
folder with a lot of items in it that
can be a big pain I don't know why os10
can't handle this better it technically
it can but it's not really easy to do
and that's what this video is about
we're gonna have to use software built
in dough as 10 called automator it is
not the easiest most intuitive thing to
to to learn how to use so just follow me
step-by-step and we should be fine
so open spot lights you know the search
bar at the top right which is command
space bar and type in auto automator
will probably be the first thing that
comes up
go ahead and open it and we're gonna
want to create a new workflow here so
select workflow and then click on choose
and we want to add a couple different
things here notice we have a search box
it says nay minutes
here's what we're going to add first we
need to type in ask for finder items
there it is one thing came up
double-click on that now we have our ask
for finder items the next one we want to
add is rename if you just type in rename
there is rename finder items
double-click on that now we have them in
that order
working with the ask for finder items
thing up here first you need to tell it
where the folder is that you're going to
be playing with so mine happens to be on
my desktop you can come over here to
other browse anywhere on any
connected drives to your machine and
just tell it where the folder is don't
select the folder itself just wear that
folder is is it files and folders files
and folders tell it what it is and most
likely you're going to want to click on
allow multiple selection you probably
want to rename more than one thing if
you don't and you're going to rename
just one thing and it's a lot easier
just to click the enter key and type
what you want then then using this the
second one it may show up as a date or
time well if you click this drop-down
menu here you may want to name that
folder or items within a folder and date
or time maybe just some text change the
case on it makes sequential that's what
I'm gonna want to do right now and that
will just allow us to give it a name
like Seinfeld dot one dot jpg so we're
going to make a new name here check that
little circle for new name we're going
to make our name Seinfeld and then we're
going to place a number after the name
number starting at one separated by a
dash . space underscore nothing this is
completely up to you what you choose
notice we have an example down here at
the bottom where my mouse cursor is
right now and that would be seinfeld
dachuan wallet dash one let's make it .
one seinfeld dot one dot jpg the XXX
it's just going to be our file extension
we can make numbers two digits long if
we wanted to so now it's 01
but we could also put in a hundred
digits and there's a hundred digits be
stupid so we're just gonna make it one
and when we have all that set up in the
top right-hand corner of the automator
window click on run this is going to
begin the execution notice that now
opens up to that folder that we told it
under the ask for finder items starting
at desktop you probably could have
selected anything and then navigated
where you wanted to but I just told it
to go to the desktop now we need to open
that folder that we're going to be
working with and select everything that
we want to rename if we only select one
item it's only going to name one item so
you might just do command a and the
keyboard or as i did drag out and select
everything in the folder you want to
rename click on choose it is amazingly
quick
it says 27 seconds that's because I
stood here and babbled for 27 seconds
but it is very fast going to open that
folder now and notice that everything in
it is named how we want if we copy these
I
James and just duplicate a whole bunch
of them we've got 65 items 104 will go
up to about 200 different items in this
folder there's 208 will close it now
we'll come back over here now we'll name
it seinfeld will put the number before
and will use an underscore to separate
it will make numbers two digits actually
three digits long
starting the numbers at one click run
browse to folder select everything again
choose and they're dead it just named
208 items in about three seconds there
so if we open this up there's all 208
perfectly labeled so this could be
really helpful for maybe a photographer
it's got a crap ton of different photos
that wants to rename them within finder
I hope this is useful there's a lot of
different things you can use on
automator for to do this is really the
only one that I've learned how to do but
if you play in here be careful that you
can probably should screw some stuff up
there of course use google to help you
with other things anyways hope i helped
thanks for watching the video our site
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channel if you like what you see in my
Twitter's twitter.com / James our
shields i'll talk to you guys in
tomorrow's video again thanks for
watching bye bye