automatorfilesystemfinderimage editingrename
My camera names its images IMG_0001.jpg, IMG_0002.jpg, IMG_0003.jpg, etc.
I have about a thousand images and would like to rename them without having to do it manually if possible.
Is there a good way to automate the process of renaming them in the reverse order – e.g. IMG_0003.jpg, IMG_0002.jpg, IMG_0001.jpg?
As far as OS X is concerned, this is acceptable IF you have selected a non-case sensitive filesystem.
The non-case sensitive filesystem is the default, so unless you selected case sensitivity during installation of your operating system (or in Lion's most likely case, your previous operating system), you should be fine.
When selecting file system case sensitivity (or not), it should also be known that while the operating system itself will be okay with this, certain applications may not. There are problems using nearly all of Adobe's applications on a case sensitive file system. At the time of this answer, the Adobe Knowledge Base article regarding this issue was last updated roughly 9 months ago (2010-11-03) and this is still the case. Adobe's only answer to the problem was, and remains, to not use case sensitivity.
It is possible that other software also suffers from this issue, or may suffer from similar issues if a case sensitive filesystem is used.
For example save this file as filenames.txt:
apple
banana
orange
Then run:
a=($(<filenames.txt));for d in *;do i=0;for f in $d/*;do echo mv $f $d/${a[i++]}.jpg;done;done
Remove echo if the output looks right.
If the file names contain spaces, add IFS=$'\n'; to the start and add double quotes around the variables.
Best Answer
You can use an Automator Workflow.
Something like this:
Sort Finder Items step will sort image names descending (IMG_0003.jpg, IMG_002.jpg, IMG_001.jpg).
Make Sequential step will rename them sequentially (IMG_0001.jpg, IMG_0002.jpg, ...).
Copy Finder Items step is optional, just to be sure not to mess with original files.