Batch rename files (or multiple files rename, depending on who you talk to) on Mac… Sounds like such a mundane feature, doesn't it? When I first added it to FileUtils, I honestly didn't think much (or at all) of it. A few people, serving the role of very early testers and adopters of the application, mentioned it as something "nice to have." But even they didn't speak of it as something essential. So I threw it in. But during FileUtils' relatively short life as a macOS utility, batch file renaming has emerged as one of the most-used features. Or at least it seems to me, judging by user feedback, improvement requests, and yes, even bug reports. That came as a total surprise to me.
The surprise is somewhat bigger, considering batch file rename is available in dozens of macOS applications, either as one feature in a much bigger set of features (like complete file managers) or as an application solely dedicated to that purpose. Even Apple recognized the need for this, and since macOS 10.10 Yosemite, Finder also got batch file renaming functionality, though very rudimentary, and it has remained as such since its inception. However, I have never really had much need for this functionality. Sure, it came quite handy from time to time to quickly rename a few dozen files in rare situations when someone or something dumped such files on me. But even then it boiled down to simply removing spaces or replacing one word with another. All this combined got me curious to understand better why and how people use batch file rename, what FileUtils already does to make this task easier and more efficient, and what the areas to improve it further could be.
I quickly discovered batch file renaming is an indispensable feature for photographers. I have a few friends who are photographers—some passionate hobbyists, but two are real professionals making their living using cameras. I have never talked to them about what happens after photos have been shot and what most of their job actually is. Had I talked about it, or showed them early versions of FileUtils, I would've understood how important batch file rename was and that it had to find its place in FileUtils. Photographers deal with a lot of files on a weekly, sometimes even daily, basis, coming from different sources: multiple cameras, memory cards, USB drives… Very often they have duplicate or otherwise conflicting names. Those files don't only need renaming—they first need to be sorted out in more than one way, depending on the situation. And only then can they be batch renamed, as the sorting order influences the definitive name of each file in the sequence. Sometimes the same renaming sequence needs to be applied multiple times to the same files, but with different sorting orders, producing completely different outcomes. And sorting has to be by file name, various dates, file attributes and metadata, even different EXIF values. And then, more often than not, all those bits of different information and metadata need to be inserted into file names in the final outcome. It seems that for photographers, batch file rename is an art in itself. Some joked it's of the same importance as finding the right aperture and light angle when shooting photos.
The almost identical post-processing workflow photographers have also applies to people working as movie creators and editors. With a few specific differences, they also need to organize, sort, and rename loads of files from multiple sources with cryptic and often duplicate names. And, completely unbeknownst to me before, people working in administration, finance, and similar fields requiring a lot of reporting often need to batch rename files in different ways and following certain and repetitive rules and patterns before storing those files in folders (which in turn also may require batch renaming) for archiving purposes. Finally, there are people whose batch file renaming needs aren't tied to a specific profession, but who still like to organize their files themselves and not let different file editors and presenters do it for them in completely unknown ways in their file containers and bundles—something more and more photo/image, music, podcast, and similarly related applications tend to do these days.
With this new knowledge, I was very interested to know how FileUtils helped people who contacted me regarding its batch file renaming capabilities. There are a few distinctive points:
- Finder integration. This is what all people liked and why they initially started using FileUtils for batch renaming purposes. It was not a surprise, as that was the sole purpose of why I started creating FileUtils in the first place, more of which you can read in this blog post. People like the easy accessibility that comes with FileUtils—they don't need to open a separate application, then select or drag files there, before being ready to work on renaming sequences. FileUtils offers that with an instant right-click on selected files in Finder. And being able to save renaming sequences and set the default one, which is applied when a new window opens, makes things even easier and more efficient.
- Simplicity. People find FileUtils' batch file rename interface simple and clearly understandable. Some even commented they doubted the capabilities behind such a simple interface. And they got pleasantly surprised by the end result. Like I've mentioned, I'm not really the target audience for this functionality. That makes me even more satisfied that FileUtils seems to strike the right balance between simplicity and clarity and efficient operation.
- Privileged operations. There are still a considerable number of macOS users who prefer to work on their Macs as a "standard user," as opposed to the default "administrator" user account (the one created during installation). However, that puts them in a situation where, for certain operations (for example, on files they don't have permission for), macOS asks them for an admin username and password to complete the task. FileUtils has no problem executing such privileged operations. But it seems many other applications, even those solely focused on batch file rename, do. Even though this use case seems quite unimportant, it appears to be much more common than anticipated, and FileUtils comes in quite handy in such cases.
- Speed. Last, but not least, people reported FileUtils being quite fast when renaming many files, apparently considerably faster than many other similar utilities.
Of course, not everything is nice and dandy. Most contact with avid users of batch file renaming came because they had some improvement ideas or were asking for something FileUtils still cannot do. All such requests will be dealt with in the near future, if not already. But it's good to know how important this functionality is for many people. I look at it with completely different eyes now. From the "second-grade" citizen in FileUtils at the beginning, batch file renaming has promoted itself into a major role. Continuous user input and suggestions will ensure it remains there for a long time to come. If you're a photographer, movie editor, or anyone who regularly needs to organize and rename files on Mac, FileUtils might be exactly what you need. Give it a try and see how much time it can save you.