Tag: mv

OS X: Batch Rename from GUI

This is the third time I’ve had to go hunting how to enable batch filename manipulations for OS X. Now I’m documenting it so I don’t have to hunt this down again.

I keep forgetting about this trick, so I thought I’d post it in the event I have to ever do it again.

Part of the problem with a graphical GUI is that it’s very difficult to rename files in batches, for instance, prepending some text to a group of files.  This kind of thing is fairly trivial at the command line.

Apple has a facility to do this, but as it’s not something a regular user does often, it’s not enabled by default.  Here’s how to get all kinds of additional functionality out of OS X.

1) Open /Applications/AppleScript

2) Turn on Show Script Menu in menu bar

3) Optional: turn on GUI scripting, show library scripts, and choose where to show them.

You’ll notice up near the time in the menu bar a black scroll has appeared.

All the batch renaming and filename twiddling stuff is under the Finder Scripts.

UPDATE 19-Dec-2009: Upgrading to Snow Leopards deletes some useful scripts, specifically the Finder Scripts.

UPDATE 31-Aug-2010: The scripts live in “/Library/Scripts/Finger Scripts” and are

  • Add to File Names.scpt
    md5 4b0cd899acb19b5fc62ef2049d81a933 – 18114 bytes
  • Change Case of Item Names.scpt
    md5 af7429228be4d0e1a096092af5341c52 – 17808 bytes
  • Replace Text in Item Names.scpt
    md5 716493cab1c569953a7f40d76ed9a1f7 – 24328 bytes