Hello and welcome to The Computer Lab vids YouTube channel in this video I'm
going to show you how to use the rename feature built into finder on your Mac. OK
so the first thing we need to do is open a Finder window on the Mac, so we can
access the file rename feature, so I already have a window opened up with some
files already shown here these are typical when you import off a camera
they usually show the IMG underscore than the number depending where you are up to on
the camera and how many picture you have. So the rename feature is really powerful
has some really good features although I'm only using JPEGs here you can rename
documents anything you want so if you have certain things such as a project file
you wanted to name it the project files or whatever it be you can rename on mass
and select what you want out of the folder that you have, so obviously open
up your files that want to rename and then we need to select all or select a
few if you want to just select a few and you are unfamiliar with using your
keyboard and how to select single and multiple items a quick way to do it is
select them from which file want to start from, so let's say we want to start from
2139 hold down the shift key on your keyboard which is the one that points
for the arrow up go down to the way you want to finish your renaming select them
and anything that's in blue will be renamed whilst we're going to that in a
second, I want to rename them all so I could do it use the same way select
the top one hold down the shift key select them all and then that's all the
items selected or if I want to use the top toolbar up to the top toolbar click
on edit and then down to select all and that will have the same effect that
selects and everything that's in that folder that we're currently viewing. OK
so now we have the file selected anything in blue that is selected is
going to get renamed, a couple of ways to rename and we can right click on the
blue items and then we have our menu here which gives us rename 47 items
Or we can do the same again go up to file on the top toolbar and go to rename
items so I'll click on this one and then we now get presented with
our option to rename the folder that we have selected. The first option which is
this one here where it says "format" I'll start at the top we'll go with the
"replace text" so what replace text does in finder it
looks for a word that's in the the items that you have selected so for example if
I wanted to name everything in here with that is named IMG and I want to replace
it with a text "test" for example in fact I will rename it my channel so anything
that's got a IMG it's going to replace that word with whatever way we put in
here so you can see the example there The Computer Lab underscore 2136
and then it will rename them all so rename them all just so we can see
what's going on so we keep your eye on these ones you'll see how they rename the files
so there you go anything that has IMG has now been replaced with my sample text which
is The Computer Lab then the number goes down. So again select them all and look
for the next option, go across right-click rename items so
that's the "replace text" option now we go down to the "add text" it's a really good
thing and the powerful thing in the file rename and it's built into the Mac is
the way that it gives you multiple options to rename the files, so I'm in
the add text option at the moment so now I can add something to the file so you
can see that we already have the computer lab then the number and if I
want it to say hello directly after it, you can see it's presenting an example
there the thing that really that you need to do is obviously make sure you have
used spaces or underscores because if I left it blank you sort of won't make no
difference where it's 2136 It will not make much sense
that way but I like to use underscores you can use space but say for the
example "the computer lab" underscore 2136 I'll just go hello and it
will rename all the files - I can do this before or after the text so if I change
this one here I want it to go before the name you'll see that when I go before it
or put it actually for the actual file name, so now I have I have wait says hello
underscore the computer lab so we'll change all these and you can see it
presented down here on the files we have selected - so now all my files are
renamed with that tool, again we need to select all the items so I'll select all
that's in the file right-click "rename" so that's the "add text" function another
format which is the one that I tend to use the most "format" and then we have a
couple of options once we're in formats we'll start at the top the name and the
index it's same where you want to put the name so let's say we want to rename
them IMG I want to underscore want to start a numbers at 2136
we'll start the numbers so you can see them a bit easier so I'll start
numbers at a thousand, the top one within our window here is going to be start at a
thousand and anything beyond that it's just going to count down and it's going to
start the custom format the name with IMG so I will rename so now we're back to sort
of how we were. Again go to rename again
that was the name and index now we're not to name and a counter, so now you can
see in the example straightaway what it's going to do you can start with
whatever you want if I leave that zero so it's now gonna start with the file
custom format left at IMG and it's gonna start numbers at 0 so I'll rename everything
with a counter
and the last option is the name and date
so again you can see the custom format it's got the name its going to be IMG because
that's what we have in that custom format there, and then it's gonna put
today's date not the date the actual picture was taken it's gonna be the date
that you change the file name to so you can see that they're they the date and
at the time it was changed as well, you can again place this before, if
you keep your eye on here the name and put it before or after the name so I put a date before or after
if I want to rename it that way, and I can also change text and it will call it
there with the dates or whatever you put in the format there, if I come back into
the "name and index" one so this is the one that I tend to use the most and like
I said earlier so here you call it whatever you want so I think the actual
pictures let me just have a look what they are I think a Mac repair that I did
yeah it's where we installed an SSD into a Mac so here I want to call all these
folders so yours is a wedding for example you can rename them all wedding
mine is a Mac repair. I want to start the numbers
I'll start them at 0 so it's telling me what exactly it's going to look like here so
again like saying I like to underscore so I'm going to be Mac repair and then
I'm going to underscore after so it leaves a space between my numbering so I
can see what's going on and it'll start everything there, incidentally if you do
want to put the number before you could select it here put them before name so
if you want to see a number say for example starting at 1 and then I would
change my space to the beginning of the custom format so I got a gap between my
number and what the word is just so I can make sense of it bit more when we
look at the files in a list so I'll do it that way around just
so you can see so it makes it easier to see so you can see all the files are
numbered and each one of them has got the customer text that I used and you
can obviously just flick through your pictures and see what's going on. okay so
that's it that's how to use the powerful tool
the powerful rename tool that's built into your Mac and finder a really good
handy tool to use all built in as standard you don't need to purchase any
other item so I hope this video has helped if it has please do give us a
like and give us any comments below and please do subscribe to my channel
because it all helps keep the videos coming and thank you very much for
watching