Freeware Friday: A Better Finder Rename & Attributes

It’s not a Photoshop plug-in, but for renaming large batches of images A Better Finder Rename is a good tool for changing or tweaking file names.

Can you tell I have batch processing on my mind? First I published my article on speeding up your batch processing by running Photoshop in the background, and now I’m writing about a shareware app that helps rename large batches of files. I’m talking about A Better Finder Rename.

A Better Finder Rename
Mac OS X/Windows compatible
Latest version: 7.2.2
Download
PublicSpace.net
Single User License: $20

It’s not freeware—and a little too high-priced to even be called shareware—but you can always download a trial version and use it to rename up to ten files at a time without paying. After you’ve used it awhile the $20 price will seem small. The interface is pretty easy to work with despite its complexity and there’s a wide range of abilities including:

• Replacing characters or words
• Renaming suffixes, file names or both
• Adding suffixes to file names
• Multi-step rename actions
• Add or change sequence numbers
• Add date and time
• Change case
• Conform file names to Windows or other OS-specific conventions

I especially like the ability to create a full renaming process and save it as a droplet. I wish there was a way to disable the “skip or rename” notice it gives every time you use it, but it’s a timesaver nonetheless.

A Better Finder Attributes
Mac OS X/Windows compatible
Latest version: 4.0.3
Download
PublicSpace.net
Single User License: $20

A Better Finder Rename is a member of a suite of applications called A Better Finder Series, which is $40 for a single user license. There’s several apps including a file launcher, file search and ergonomic assistant, but the most useful of these for Photoshop users is A Better Finder Attributes, which can change file attributes including EXIF digital photography metadata. That would be a wonderful thing for my photos from my trip to Paris, which are dated 7 hours early because I neglected to change my camera’s clock.

A Better Finder Attributes currently supports EXIF data for the JPEG and Canon CRW Raw file formats, and partial support for Canon CR2 Raw, Nikon NEF Raw and Adobe DNG Raw file formats.