Batch File Rename |
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Remove the tedium from this repetitive operation... |
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| Open the Batch Tool First thing's first, open the Photoshop Elements Batch Tool. To do this, select 'File - Process Multiple Files...' from the menu. A rather large and daunting dialog box will appear, like the one below. Don't worry though, we can ignore most of it, we only need a few small parts! |
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| Two Simple Steps The batch renaming process basically requires two steps. The first is to select which files are to be renamed. The second is to specify how they should be renamed. Selecting the Files If you've already learnt about selecting files in another batch tutorial, then feel free to skip down to the section on 'Renaming the Files', otherwise, read on... Firstly, look for the top left frame titled 'Process Files From:', which is pictured below: |
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| Here you can pick a folder for your batch operation, or use a different image source. The default item
for the drop down box by the title is 'Folder'. If you want to use a different source, change this drop down box to another value, like 'Import', 'Opened Files', or 'File Browser'. All the options require that you to specify an output folder where the processed files will be saved to. Only the 'Folder' option allows you to select the 'Same as Source' check box however. This option will overwrite each file instead of saving it somewhere else. Each source option is explained below: Folder - This option allows you to run a batch process on all the files in one folder. You can also choose to process files in subfolders of the main folder. Beware though. All files, from the folder and all subfolders, will end up in the same single destination folder. Import - This option allows you to import all the images from another document for processing, for example a pdf file. Opened Files - This option simply processes all the documents you currently have open in Photoshop Elements. These are sometimes referred to as being in the 'Photo Bin'. This option is only available if you have at least one document open. File Browser - This option processes all the files selected in the 'File Browser' panel. It is only available if you have the 'File Browser' panel open. Renaming the Files Once you have selected a set of documents to batch file rename using one of the methods above, you need to refer to the next frame, titled 'File Naming', which is pictured below: |
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| First tick the box that reads 'Rename Files'. This will enable the frame. You now need to tell Photoshop
what pattern you'd like the documents to be renamed by. Simply select two items from the drop down boxes supplied. Often one of these will need to be "Document Name", which inserts the current name of the document into the new name. You can also type your own custom text into the boxes. Examples of how each item works are shown when you select them, so click through the different naming conventions to see what's available. The list is shown below: |
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| For example, if you have a load of pictures in a folder, and you want to number them, you could select
"2 Digit Serial Number" in the first box, and "Document Name" in the second box. Don't forget, you can also write in text of your own too. Often if you've downloaded a set of pictures from a digital camera, they'll be named meaningless things like "IMG41251.jpg". Why not rename them so that they are part of a set? For instance set the first box to be "Day At Park - " and the second box to be "3 Digit Serial Number". |
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Multi-Stage Renaming One thing you can't do is modify the special items. For example, you might expect that you could put "Document Name - " in the first box, and "2 Digit Serial Number" in the second box, to produce images named (for example) "Flowers - 01.jpg". Actually, all the new file names will literally read "Document Name - 01.jpg", and only the number will change. So what do you do if you really need to rename files in a way not easily allowed by the items Photoshop provides? Well one idea is to use a multi-stage rename. Let me give an example: You have some files called "Dandelion.jpg", "Daisy.jpg", "Daffodil.jpg", and so on. You want to rename them so they look like this: "01 - Dandelion.jpg". Run the rename operation twice. On the first run, the boxes should read " - " and "Document Name". On the second run the boxes should read "2 Digit Serial Number" and "Document Name". These combined rename operations will produce the desired effect. There are far too many possibilities to explore this avenue much further, but I just wanted to state that you are not limited to the options Photoshop provides. With a little creativity, there shouldn't be any convention that you can't rename your files with! A Caution When you hit that 'Ok' button, be prepared to stop using your computer while Photoshop performs the batch rename. The batch feature in Photoshop Elements allows you to do many things at once, for example resize images and rename them at the same time. This versatility requires Photoshop to open each file to rename it, and this can be quite a big operation. You can do other things while Photoshop performs a batch file rename, but I've found that if there are a lot of images, or they are large files, then it can cause Photoshop to freeze or crash, so it's best just to be patient where possible. |
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Kind Regards
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A page about how to Batch File Rename
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