How to batch rename image files with Paint by Zaweba
Batch Rename in Paint by Zaweba renames whole folders with name, number, date and folder patterns, regex find and replace, a live preview and clash checks.
Camera file names like IMG_4031.JPG tell you nothing. Renaming a few hundred of them by hand is tedious and error-prone. File > Automate > Batch Rename in Paint by Zaweba renames a whole set of files from a pattern, with find and replace, case and extension changes, and a preview so you see the result before anything is touched.
Building a pattern
The pattern is made from fixed text and placeholders. {name} is the current name, {n:000} is a counter padded with zeros to three digits, {date} is the date, {ext} is the extension, and {folder} is the name of the folder the file is in.
A few examples show how they combine. "smith-wedding-{n:000}" gives smith-wedding-001, smith-wedding-002 and so on. "{folder}-{n:000}" uses the folder name as a prefix, which is handy when a shoot is already sorted into folders by subject. "{date}-{name}" puts the date in front of the existing name so files sort chronologically.
Padding the counter matters. Without zeros, file 10 sorts before file 2 in many programs. With {n:000}, they line up properly up to 999.
Find and replace
Find and replace changes part of each name. It supports regular expressions (regex), which let you match patterns rather than exact text. Simple uses need no regex at all: replace "IMG_" with "holiday-", or replace spaces with hyphens. With regex you can do things like remove a camera prefix of any length, or move a number from the end of a name to the start.
If regular expressions are new to you, start with plain text and use the preview to check. It is the quickest way to learn what a pattern does.
Case and extensions
Case changes make names consistently upper or lower case. Lower case file names are a good habit for websites, because some servers treat Photo.JPG and photo.jpg as different files.
Extension changes tidy things like .JPG versus .jpg or .jpeg versus .jpg. Note that this renames the extension only; it doesn't convert the image to another format.
Preview, clash checks and a log
The preview shows old and new names side by side before you commit. Read through it, especially the first and last few files. Clash checks catch cases where two files would end up with the same name, so nothing is overwritten by accident. A log records what was renamed, which helps if you need to trace a file back to its original name later.
Good practice
Rename copies when the originals matter, at least until you trust a pattern. Sort the files as you want them numbered before renaming, because the counter follows the order. Keep names short and free of odd characters so they work on websites and other systems.
Renaming as part of a bigger job
Batch Rename is one of the File > Automate tools in Paint by Zaweba, alongside batch processing and Droplets. A common routine is to rename a shoot first, then run a batch action to resize and export, so the processed files carry sensible names from the start. Contact Sheet then shows those names as captions, which makes a sheet far more useful to a client than a page of IMG numbers.
