Every once in a while, I find myself in a situation where I need to rename a lot of files. For example, if I receive a poorly labeled session with poorly labeled audio files and I want to add some information like a cue number, or the project name. Dong it manually is a pain and very time consuming. Thankfully Mac OS has an app called Automator, which is very easy to setup and does the job perfectly and super-quickly. Here’s how:
Step 1.
Open Automator, which you will find in you Applications folder and select Service.
Step 2.
From the list of actions, select Rename Finder Items (you can type in “rename” in the search box to quickly find it). You can choose to add a Copy Finder Items action if you want to make a copy of the files you’re renaming. I don’t usually do this since the whole point is to rename the files, and I generally have a backup of the original materials I’m sent already.
Step 3.
Adjust the following settings:
- Service receives selected: files or folders in Finder
- From the next dropdown select Add Text
- Add: Enter the text you want to add here, then select before name or after name or as extension
- Click the Options tab at the bottom and check Show this action when the workflow runs
Step 4.
Hit Command S to save your automator script and name it
Step 5.
Go to the folder that contains the files you want to rename. Select them and right click (or hold down Control then click) to open the contextual menu, select Services at the bottom and then your script.
Step 5.
A window will appear where you can adjust the renaming settings. If you’re happy with your settings, click Continue. Or do what I do – I created a script and then I just tweak it whenever I use it to the specifics I want.
Tada!
That’s it – here’s what the folder looks like with the renamed files. Create this script once, then modify how you want it to behave and speed up your file management.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or add a comment.