I am slowly converting to a paperless life, but am having a problem with some of the legacy data. I have well over 1,000 pdfs of financial statements whose filename is formatted as "company name - dd-mm-yy" (only two digits for the year, and no leading zeros). I want to change the filenames to "yyyy-mm company name", but I do not want to have to rename them individually, as it will take forever. Is there an easier way of renaming all the files? I have Hazel and Text Expander, but cannot figure out the logic. The date created and other metadata does not correspond to the statement date, although each pdf has in its keywords "Date - dd/mm/yy"; I cannot find a way to use that information. Does anyone have any ideas?
Renaming files
(8 posts) (5 voices)-
Louis Mullinger
MemberPosted 1 year ago # -
GeekyGirl
AdministratorLouis,
I've seen some apps that do batch file name conversion. I've never used one of them, so I can't recommend anything, but you might do a search for that. Joe Kissell talks about this in his paperless office ebook. I don't think he specifically recommends an application either though as he's suggesting to set it up like that from the beginning. I'll look though, to see if anything is mentioned.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Chips
WMLouis,
Public Space ( http://www.publicspace.net/ ) makes several apps that help manage file renaming, file attributes, & organization. Their "A Better Finder Rename" may do what you need. ABFR is at version 9 & has been around since 1996. It sells for $19.95 & they offer a free trial that is limited to renaming at most 10 files at a time.
Another you might look at is Renamer ( http://renamer.com/ ) from Incredible Bee. It sells for $19 & they offer a 14 day no restriction trial.
You might also try searching Mac Update ( http://www.macupdate.com/ ) too.
I haven't tried either of these. If you do, let us know how they worked for you.
Chips
Posted 1 year ago # -
Chips
WMLouis,
Public Space ( http://www.publicspace.net/ ) makes several apps that help manage file renaming, file attributes, & organization. Their "A Better Finder Rename" may do what you need. ABFR is at version 9 & has been around since 1996. It sells for $19.95 & they offer a free trial that is limited to renaming at most 10 files at a time.
Another you might look at is Renamer ( http://renamer.com/ ) from Incredible Bee. It sells for $19 & they offer a 14 day no restriction trial.
You might also try searching Mac Update ( http://www.macupdate.com/ ) too.
I haven't tried either of these (but I do use MainMenu from Incredible Bee). If you do, let us know how they worked for you.
Chips
Posted 1 year ago # -
Rick DeNatale
MemberDavid Sparks, who along with Katy Floyd hosts the weekly Mac Power Users podcast http://macpowerusers.com/ just released an iBook called "Paperless". http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/paperless/id520393162?mt=11 I bought it yesterday and it's pretty good. You do need an iPad to read it, but it makes very good use of the multi-media features of iBooks Author.
David recommends a $0.99 App Store app called Rename It for batch renaming files http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rename-it/id443773246?mt=12 although he doesn't do much more than mention it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Rick DeNatale
MemberOh, by the way, that David Sparks "Paperless" ebook contains several short screencasts, some of which show how he uses automator, for example early on he shows how to create some services through automator to turn images in to pdfs (with or without conversion from color to B&W) and to add metadata to pdf files.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Louis Mullinger
MemberThank you, Chips, for coming up with the answer - A Better Finder Renamer (known in the App Store as Better Rename), is doing the job very well. Very flexible and easy to use - I highly recommend it. This is the only solution I have found that will allow me to move the file name around to reformat it (adding 20 to the year, then moving it to the front etc). I appreciate all the other advice, and would reiterate Rick's comments about David Sparks' book. I got it ten days or so ago, and that was what inspired me to complete the process I started some months ago. It's a great book, very helpful, and also a good demonstration of what can be achieved with iBooks Author. It is now also available as a pdf with screencasts.
Posted 12 months ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.
