Changing RAW images to jpegs

I take all my pictures in RAW. I guess I do this because I'm hoping I take that one amazing shot and when I do I want to have all the RAW material to work with. However, obviously 99.9% of my pictures end up being just nice snapshots which I would be happy to have as a jpeg therefore taking up about a 10th of the space.
Question is, is there an easy way to change all my 'snap shot' type pictures to jpeg? There are literally thousands of them and I'm hoping I can press a magic button and bulk change them all from RAW to jpeg.
Is there such a magic button? Please say yes.
I would be most grateful for any help, thanks.

Automator can do that (bear in mind this workflow will not copy the images, it will convert and delete the raw images, so make sure you apply it to copies or images you are sure you are happy not having the RAW versions)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10708514/to%20JPEG.zip

What program are you using to process you RAW files? I use Canon equipment and it comes with Digital Photo Professional with can batch process RAW to Jpeg.
However, storage is so reasonable why not just store the RAW files on an external hard drive. Weed out the ones you know you'll never use and keep the ones you might want to go back and change in the future.

Thanks for the answers, this gives me great hope!
Prss, I too use canon equipment. Is digital photo professional a programme that came with my camera?nif I can't find it, where can I get it from?
As for your suggestion about storage, I guess what you suggest would be ideal but I'm not 100% sure of the process which is why I have posted a second thread below this one which I hope you might be able to help me with.
Thanks again for your reply and help with this one

Yes, DPP comes on a disk with your camera. It's a great program and is probably the best RAW converter for Canons. And it's free.
I don't use it that much anymore but I still use ImageBrowser to import my files. I put them in a folder on my desktop and then import in to my editing program. That way I weed out the bad ones first and I keep my original RAW files separate. Then I can move them to the external drive and free up room on the computer.
Moving to an external is very easy. Find your picture files and highlight them. Find your external drive on your desktop.. Open it and just drag your files to the external. You can make folders etc.
There are other ways but I think that's the easiest. Then you can delete the picture files from your computer.
Easy peasy!

Thanks prrs, that's a very detailed answer and maybe one I'm not quite ready for!
Let me explain how I do it then hopefully you can advise.
I take my pictures.
Then I upload them on iphoto.
There they stay.
Once a year(!) I identify ones I really like and I use photoshop to fiddle around with the image.
The rest just stay as they are.
When you talk of using image browser to import your files, what is that? A programme like iphoto? Does it have advantages over iphoto? I'm pretty used to it but wouldn't mind changing on recommendation.
I guess one of the reasons I want to reduce the file sizes of the snapshot type pictures has just happened. I have uploaded a folder onto the web that I want to share with my nephew and it's going to take a good hour and a half!
If the pictures were in a much smaller file size they would be imminently more shareable.
Anyway, if I can find Digital Photo Professional, is the idea that I upload the photos from iphoto onto DPP and it will simply batch change them to jpeg? Then I should delete the RAW images from iphoto and replace with jpegs from DPP?
Thanks so much for your interest, help and advice.

Image Browser and DPP should have come on a disk with your camera. If you have never used it then don't bother. Stay with iPhoto.
Everyone has a different method. The best one is the one that works for you and you are comfortable with.
It is easy to share through iPhoto. You can email the pictures and change the size for the email.
Also you can make a folder on your desktop and export the iPhoto files to the folder in a small size and email them that way.
Sorry I confused you.

I won't claim this to be a particularly efficient workflow, but it is what I am doing.
My wife uses iPhoto and wants access to view all the pics I take, but I use Aperture and tend to shoot RAW because . . . (mainly just because)

1) I start by uploading my images to Aperture and do a minimal sort and renaming, deleting the obvious throwaways

2) I then export The entire shoot as 1/2 size JPEGs

3) I import those JPEGs to an iPhoto Library on a networked Hard Drive

4) At my leisure (mostly never) I go back and do my serious editting on the shoot in Aperture

prrs you didnt confuse me at all, thanks for the helpful reply.
It really makes a difference to have people on these sites who give their time to help out.
I get what you're saying now.
But I don't see a feature on iphoto to batch change RAW files to Jpegs so I'll check out what you're saying.
At the very least I have a greater understanding of what I'm doing now.
Same to Razormac. Appreciate you sharing the way you do things. Very helpful and I will investigate.
Thanks for all this info.
It's invaluable.

When you export photos from iPhoto they are changed to jpegs. You can even tell it what size to export. i still think the easiest way to batch change RAW files is with DPP. If you bought the camera new it should be there somewhere.

Hi, I am late to the party; however since I put in my order for my first Mac it is as early as I can join the fun.

You do not need to find DPP on your disk, just download it from the link below.

From what you are saying, that you look at Photoshop one a year or so, we won't even get into versions or other programs like Lightroom.

Needless to say you will find that all of the image editing you want to do can be done in DPP and then the RAW CR2 can be exported to your hard drive as a JPEG or exported to Photoshop for further editing and saving either as a layered PSD, or exported as a JPEG.

You can also download the DPP manual.

DPP: [FONT=&quot]http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer[/FONT]