I just want something simple

August 22, 2006 8:34 AM

Image renaming software (Win and/or Mac) - I'm looking for some software that will show thumbnail images of several images at a time (the more the better), and let me rename them all in a batch by just typing quickly - no mouse clicks required.

I've done some searching, and am getting more options than I anticipated. However, the ones I've seen so far all seem to show one image at a time - I can do that already - or seem otherwise clumsy. I don't want to just rename everything in a batch with the date; I want to type descriptive names myself, but I want to do it with as little mouse-click friction as possible.

Ideally, I'd see a bunch of pictures, type name, tab, type name, tab, and so forth, then click "enter" to commit the changes (or some similar procedure).

I'd love to use it myself, and to be able to send it to my clients who are always giving me gobs of inscrutably-numbered files. I use Windows 98 (but have access to a Mac); they're all over the place OS-wise.

posted by amtho to computers & internet (16 comments total)

Why not use the image preview available in Finder? (I think Explorer can do this too.)

The just navigate to each file and rename to what you'd like. No mouse necessary.
posted by unixrat at 8:46 AM on August 22, 2006

F2 is the shortcut key in windows explorer to rename, BTW. :)
posted by shepd at 8:49 AM on August 22, 2006

Uh, can I show multiple thumbnails of images simultaneously in Windows 98 in just Explorer?

Thanks for the shortcut key - it would be just what I needed if I could see thumbnails of the images.
posted by amtho at 8:57 AM on August 22, 2006

To clarify my Windows 98 question - I am a great turner-off of features, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'd turned off something, years ago, that would help here.
posted by amtho at 9:01 AM on August 22, 2006

amtho, I think you have to right-click the folder in some whitespace and choose the tickbox 'enable thumbnail view'. From memory, I think this is a Win 98 SE option only.
posted by dance at 9:15 AM on August 22, 2006

Hey! I found it! However, my "thumbnails" consist of white squares about an inch on a side with an icon nested cleanly in the center -- these are JPG files, and the FireFox icon is showing for each of them. They're 1.5 - 3 MB each; could there be a problem displaying larger images? Or do I need to do something to generate the thumbnails?
posted by amtho at 9:29 AM on August 22, 2006

Also, I seem to need to navigate between thumbnails using the arrow keys, which isn't the kind of streamlined interface I was hoping for. I'm downloading Picasa and another package, though I don't think either will do exactly what I want.

Hasn't anybody solved this problem?
posted by amtho at 9:32 AM on August 22, 2006

ThumbsPlus can display a directory of image files by thumbnail. You can select any or all of them, and use an "autorename" function which you give a base name, a beginning number, an increment, and a number of digits, and it will do it, e.g. f_002.jpg, f_003.jpg, f_004.jpg, f_005.jpg etc.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:34 AM on August 22, 2006

FastStone Image Viewer does it, plus a whole lot more.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 10:27 AM on August 22, 2006

I've been doing this for years with ACDSee and think it's great. I frequently use the batch renaming for long animated sequences as well. It's very powerful.
posted by MattS at 10:45 AM on August 22, 2006

Your question brought to mind this Lifehacker posting regarding a product called "Rename-It!" I haven't investigated it thoroughly, but it might do the trick.
posted by NYCinephile at 10:51 AM on August 22, 2006

I recall using an appletalk script to rename a bunch of jpegs. Didn't try it with thumbnails, however.

Renamed a bunch of other files with it, too.
posted by notyou at 11:39 AM on August 22, 2006

Looked at "Rename-It!", but it renames according to a pattern. I just want to type individual names - but several images at a time.
posted by amtho at 1:40 PM on August 22, 2006

Irfanview can do that. Irfanview's great.
posted by ComfySofa at 3:43 PM on August 22, 2006

>do I need to do something to generate the thumbnails?

Pinki might be useful to you on Mac. It creates thumbnails automatically.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:03 PM on August 22, 2006

CKRename is light, simple, and powerful. ACDSee is also very good, but it's a whole image manager application.

_{Win98? Really? Wow...}
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:38 PM on August 23, 2006