I hate, hate, hate how my camera names image files. They’re just a bunch of numbers. Can Mac OS X quickly and easily rename them all?
We hate it too--a folder of files with names like DSCN0684.jpg just doesn’t give us a lot of clues. Even with the handiness of QuickLook, renaming the image files is the best way to remember what they are later. Mac OS X doesn’t have batch renaming built in, though that can be set up with Automator. But a handy application called Name Mangler ($10, www.manytricks.com) will rename batches of files in a flash. You can rename files sequentially, remove underscores, find and replace characters from filenames, change the case or extension, and more. Once you figure out your favorite renaming scheme, you can save it to your Desktop or Dock as a Droplet, and then just drag image files onto the Droplet to rename the whole batch.
Name Mangler is versatile and easy to use.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Name Mangler is free. Developer Many Tricks let us know it's really $10 shareware with a 25-use trial, and then you'll see registration reminders. We regret the error, and have corrected the copy above.
