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Renaming w/ACDSee
- When transfer pictures from your camera to your computer, the image files have names like DSCN0001.JPG or IMG00001.JPG ... I recommend always renaming them before you even look at them. See 10 Tips / Rename for a discussion of why.
- To rename pictures using ACDSee, select the images to rename:
Here you see that the images already in the "Original/nikon01z" folder had names from w02770.jpg to w02779.jpg (I name all my pictures with the letter w followed by a sequential 5 digit number, but I recommend using your initials followed by either a sequential number ... a name like jam1234.jpg, or the year and month and then a sequential number ... a name like jam0412-123.jpg).
Also note the little yellow post-it box ... another feature of the ACDSee is that if you move your cursor over an image and hold the cursor still you'll learn more information about the image. In this example, ACDSee shows the Name and Filesize of EVERY image, but this is totally under your control ... there are dozens of facts in can display. See Tools / Options / File List / Thumbnail Display / Choose Thumbnail Info. You might want to consider just displaying the name ... this leaves more room for additional thumbnails.
- After selecting the images to be renamed, choose Tools / Batch Rename (or here we have a Batch Rename (text button among the other Icons on the Main Toolbar). You'll get a window like:
- The key to renaming is the Template ... here I have specified my initial (w) followed by a 0 because I knew I wanted to use 5 digit numbers, not 4 digit numbers. By making this first digit a constant, and using #### to indicate a 4 digit sequential number follows, ACDSee will default to the number it finds in first image selected as the starting number for the sequence (my camera uses 4 digit numbers).
- I also like lower case file names, so I choose the "Change file name & extension to lower case" option.
- Under the Advanced Options tab, I check only the first 3 options:
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- Automatically close wizard when finished.
- Save current settings as defaults.
- Warn about extension changes.
- ACDSee remembers the last Template you used, so if your camera uses unique numbers instead of starting over each time you erase the card there may be nothing to do other than press Start Rename once you setup your options.
After you've renamed your original images, the next step is to rotate any images that are sideways ... I recommend against using the Rotate Left or Right buttons ... instead see Rotate Options.
Next check out Organizing Basics which includes an example of using Batch Rename to rename images so even your DVD player will play them in your custom order and does it without loosing the original file names.
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