Introduction: Now, let’s take a look at the different ways we can rename files in batches on the Mac. I’m looking at my Documents folder here, and I have these four images. Let’s go and place these into its own folder. The first thing I need to do is I need to select them. I’m going to select the first image, hold down the shift key, and select the last image. Now I have these four images selected. Now I’m going to use my secondary menu. I have a trackpad, so I’m going to tap with two fingers. Then I’m going to create a new folder with my selection. Let’s go on and open up this folder, double click on it. Here are my four images.

Renaming Files in Batches: Let’s take a look at how we can rename these files. Right now, they are called image one, two, three, and four. Let’s say I wanted to change the word “image.” Maybe I want to call them picture one, two, three, and four. What I need to do is I need to replace the text, or maybe I want to reserialize these, maybe call them image 10, 20, 30, 40, or just reformat them. To rename our images in batches, including these three options, what we do is we select them. I’m going to go and select these images here, we go up under File on the menu bar, and then you’re going to see “Rename 4 items.” When I do this or select this, I’m going to get a sheet that drops down from the window.

Using the Secondary Menu to Rename Files in Batches: My favorite way of renaming files is through the secondary menu. What I’m going to do is go outside of this, and now I’m going to use my secondary click. I do a two-finger tap on my trackpad, or what I could do is I could use Ctrl and click. Two-finger tap. We have my secondary menu, and then you’re going to see, we also have “Rename 4 items.” This is how I traditionally like to do it, is using the secondary click. This is how I’m going to be doing it throughout the video. If you’re not comfortable with the secondary click, you can also go back under File, and then you can also use rename under the File menu. Let’s go back over to my secondary click here, two-finger tap, and I have Rename.

Renaming Options: When I select this, I’m going to get a sheet that drops down from below the toolbar in my window. Then from there, I’m going to have various options for renaming my files. Let’s go ahead and select this. We have my sheet that drops down, and from here, I can go and rename my finder items, the four images that I have selected.

From here, what I need to do is, I need to select how I want to rename them. I can go and replace the text. I can also add text or Format it. Let’s first look at Replace Text. Right now, they are called images one, two, three, and four, what I want to do is replace the word image with picture. What I do is I go on find image by typing here “image,” and then I want to replace it with the word “picture.” Now I click in here, and I type in “picture.” You’re going to see we have a preview here in our example. Now all I need to do is click on rename. When I click on rename, it’s going to find the word image and replace it with picture.

Let’s go ahead and rename these, and now we can see we have a picture one, two, three, and four. Let’s see what other options we have. I Ctrl-Click on it to get our secondary menu, or in my case with my trackpad, I do a two-finger tap, and then we go back over to rename. Our sheet drops down, and now let’s take a look at Add Text. Select it, and now what we can do is we can go and add text. The first thing we need to decide is, where do we want to add our text before the name or after?

What I’m going to do is I’m going to go with it before the name. Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to type in here, “Camera.” Let’s go ahead and type in “Camera-.” I’m going to put a dash in there. Now you’re going to see it’s going to add the text camera to my picture. It’s going to do this for all four images. Let’s go ahead and rename it. Now we can see we have camera picture 1, camera picture 2, camera picture 3, and camera picture 4.

Let’s take a look at our third option for renaming files in batches. Again, I Ctrl-click or two-finger tap, and we go to Rename. Now what I do is I select Format. With Format, what we can do is we can format the text, but what does this mean? We can select how we want to have it formatted. Right now, it’s going to be name and index. The name is going to be what is typed in here; the index is going to be a serialized number. If I go and click on Rename, it’s going to rename them as files zero, one, two, and three.

If I wanted to have a file one, two, three, and four, what I would do is I would go over here to Start Numbers At and change this to one. Now it’s going to be file one, file two, file three, and file four. Now, right now, I have a space in here, I’d like to have a dash, so I go back under Custom Format, delete the space and put a dash in there. Now it’s going to be file-1, 2, 3, and 4. I can also select a name and counter, and if I wanted to have a date in there, I could select the date.

Over to the right, I can select where I want to have it indexed. By selecting this, what I can do is I can have it indexing before the name. Instead of file 1, 2, 3, and 4, it would be 1 file, 2 file, 3 file, and 4 file. Then, again, we set where we want to start our numbers. Now when I click on Rename, it’s going to rename my files as file 1, 2, 3, and 4. Let’s go ahead and click on Rename. Now we can see we have file 1, 2, 3, and 4.

That’s how we can rename our files in batches on the Mac.