SOOOO appreciate this app

I have been using Macs for over 30 years, and have accumulated a LOT of files in that time. I’ve also used a lot of utilities and applications, including file management/naming/metadata management utilities.

This is definitely one of the “Very Useful” ones.

It has a slight learning curve to it, especially learning how to use the multi-step function, but once I got the hang of it, I haven’t looked back once. I’ve used it over and over to help me manage my files and keep things organized. Even something as seemingly mundane as keeping up with photos is made much easier with this tool.

For example, while I do import my photos into Aperture (now transitioning to Photos, once upon a time was iPhotos), I have learned through bitter experience the value of keeping a full set of my photos outsite of Photos, as simple files, as well. I use this app to rename them all according to the date they were taken (usually File Creation Date but sometimes a manually-set date for older scanned-in photos) using the Year-Month-Day format for better sorting, then, in the same process job, appending a descriptor for the photo, such as Son’s 15th Birthday, or whatever, plus a sequence number to keep them in the right order.

This way, when Aperture/Photos lets me down and I can’t find exactly what I’m looking for (in one memorable iPhotos upgrade my many tens of thousands of photos were suddenly and irreparably all redated to 1900-01-01 and I’ve still not fully recovered from that nightmare), looking through my separate Photos collection helps me find the photo I need in a timely fashion.

Then, if I decide to create a new Photos library with a large, selected batch of photos, the photos I import automatically bear a descriptive name instead of the ever-so-unhelpful “img_4570.jpg” or whatever nomenclature the camera I’m using happens to use. In fact, I now rename all new photos in this fashion before I ever import them, because I find this strategy so helpful.

I use this utility with many types of files, including business receipts, and so much more — many of them older but still important to me.

ea/

ea/ about Better Rename 9, v9.45