12-26-2006, 09:15 AM

ugh.
just when i thought i'd had it figured out...

ok, so i devise a plan. perhaps unweildy, but had promise.

i just downloaded a bunch of pics of my camera from sept through yesterday.

i figured my way through a process i figured would work to change the name from dscn##### to something like family_###_date. though ideally it would be family_date(as yyyymmdd)_### (a number that indicates the order taken).

so here's what i have:
an automator script that renames the dcsn#####.jpg files as family_###.
i've made sure to have them ordred in 'modified' order with oldest at the top. i make sure to grab the first with all selected and drag them to the "get specified finder items" in automator. they never seem to move over in order. so, since th dscn numbers are typically in numeric order for when they are shot, i click the "name" bar in automator's "get specified finder items" to mke sure that they are in order from oldest to newest.
then i run the script and of course automator completely ignores the order i've chosen.
then i have an 'add date' automator script, though with this script, i can only seem to add the date to the end, not slip it between the "family" and the "_###".

the problem here is this...
when using other programs, most specifically xee, the files want to display in name order only. so if i rename a batch of files with more than one modified date, as above, the files display out of date order.
also, just for my own obsessiveness, it would be nice if the numbers were in order.

i know wanting a mac to do something like windows is asking the wrong question... but really, it's finder. they are files, whatever thier kind. finder has a rename function. it should be as basic as working doors on a car or the ability to choose the temperature an oven cooks at to have a multiple file rename built seemlessly into an os's default file manager.

so, can anyone else figure out either why automator doesn't care at all what order i choose (really, why even have the option to sort the files in the tool at all if it doesn't affect the order of the task on the files chosen)?
or, is there a better file renaming tool to use for this task besides finder and automator?

12-26-2006, 09:22 AM

How about NameChanger? Looks like it could do what you want it to do, eric.

12-26-2006, 11:24 AM

cool! i'll try it out and post my results later...

12-26-2006, 11:57 AM

eh... it's pretty neat, but it doesn't seem as though you can wildcard.

so if i had:
dscn0148
dscn0149
dscn0150

i could go so far as to replace dscn01 with something else, but not the 48, 49, 50.

so, i guess i could take each day's pictures and rename something like this:
dscn0148
dscn0149
dscn0150
to
family_20061225_0148
family_20061225_0149
family_20061225_0150
or
family_20061225_48
family_20061225_49
family_20061225_50
but not
family_20061225_001
family_20061225_002
family_20061225_003
without doing it manually.

but that defeats the automated date modified thing i was trying to do with automator... but it does, for the most part, give me the same functionality as windows explorer.

12-26-2006, 12:13 PM

*Cough* *Cough*

Well I did find this at Apple's site. Maybe this can help?

*Checks to make sure the thread is the right one...*

12-26-2006, 12:18 PM

well, i'll give it a shot. maybe it'll explain, at the very least, what ordering automator follows if not by name or date, etc.

edit: btw, also trying renamer4mac, not sure where i got it, but i knew i downloaded something like this a while ago. don't think i even really tried it.

02-10-2007, 09:37 PM

yeah, i have had the same problem, i decided to not even bother with automator --- but it is a real ******. i will check out the tutorial and hopefully this will be the solution to this problem.

02-14-2007, 07:24 AM

update.

renamer4mac - very nice. works very easily and keeps files in their original order.