What’s the easiest way to rename a file on your Mac? Even though it’s a time honored process that everyone follows, let me walk you through the steps because there is on problem. From the Finder, select the file or folder whose name you want to change. Press the Return key on the keyboard. Type in the file’s new name. Done.
What could be easier? Not much. Unless you have to change the name of, let’s say, a dozen or so file or folder names. The simplicity of changing a file’s name just became tedious and a bit time consuming, but not enough to make you run out and buy a specialized utility. Now, what if you change file or folder names by the dozens and you do it frequently. The simplicity became tedium which quickly translates into a chore which cries out to you, “There must be a better way!”
There is. It’s called A Better Finder Rename, a Mac app which automates file and folder renaming. I’ve used it since the last century and nothing is better at changing file names by the hundreds or thousands. Drag and drop a folder of files to change. Adjust the drop down boxes accordingly. Check it all in Preview mode. Click Perform Renames.
The renaming process is simple. Drag and drop files to rename. Select the prefix, suffix, renumbering and sorting processes from the dropdown menus. View the changes instantly in Preview mode. Click to rename the whole batch.
The ability to rename files by the thousands makes A Better Finder Rename popular with photographers. It can extract EXIF data from photos and use that in sequence numbers or date information, and it handles all major RAW formats, including JPEG, CRW, CR2, THM, NEF, TIFF, RAJ, ORF , MRW, DNG, PEF, SRF and more, but anyone with a large music collection will appreciate the built-in options to change ID3 metadata tags in music files.
File renaming by the hundreds or thousands can get tricky, and may involve multiple steps where you name a batch of files this way, and then name the resulting renamed files another way. A Better Finder Rename has that covered, too. Just setup multiple actions and then combine, order, and reorder the actions as needed for future renaming projects. That eliminates the multiple step tedium.
There are many Mac utilities which can rename files in batches, but none are faster or have more features than A Better Finder Rename. It’s a classic and well regarded in the Mac community. The Mac App Store version gets well over 100 five star reviews, with a handful of single-star reviews which appear to be written by competitors as their ‘issues’ do not mirror my 15 years of usage at all.