Paddler said:
I use My pictures to keep photos in folders. I use Adobe
Elements to edit photos and create slide shows. I will
rearrange photos in a folder, and rename the folder so
that each photo is numbered in the way I want it to
appear. As an example I want a photo taken on May 1 to
appear after one taken on June 1, I drag and drop them
into the order I want, and renumber them. But, when I
open the file in Adobe, it puts them back in the original
sequence, igonring the numbered order. I believe that I
need to change the basic file name, but no idea how to do
it. Can someone tell me if it is not only feasible, but,
practically speaking, doable.
=============================
First try the following:
For a numbering system that should be
universal...try renaming your files this way:
Kelly,Sara,Heather0001.jpg
Kelly,Sara,Heather0002.jpg
If the file names are different...you can
still sort by number if you place the number
first.
0001Kelly,Sara,Heather.jpg
0002Mary,Betty,Brenda.jpg
When you go to two or three digits...remove
the equal number of zeros.
0001
0010
0100
If you're going above 999, add an additional
zero to each file.
00001
00010
00100
01000
You can add a space between the letters
and numbers if you wish and also you can
use parenthesis.
(0001) Kelly,Sara,Heather.jpg
(0002) Kelly,Sara,Heather.jpg
================================
Now have a look at this tutorial by Yves.
================================
Actually, batch renaming is quite simple
in Windows XP...the following info from
MVP Yves Alarie may be useful to you:
"Using XP to organize your folders and
your photos within folders"
1. How to organize your photo
folders so you can find them.
(03-27-05)
2. How to make a collection of
photos from different folders
(or just within a folder) so you can
place the photos in the order you want
and they will stay in this order when
you open the folder again for a slide
show or copy to a CD.
===
1. How to organize your photo folders.
You should make new folders on your
drive for each group of pictures, or
make new folders under My Pictures
folder, one folder for each group of
pictures. Either way will work. Now, how
do you name the folders?
Remember that XP will list (or sort)
folder names by numerical/alphabetical
order.
So the folder 2004_Vacation will be
listed before the folder Vacation. You
can take advantage of this. What do you
remember about a photo folder when you
search for it? A name or a date? It is a
lot easier to find photo folders when
they have both a date and a name, but
easier when the folders are listed
chronologically by date first instead of
by name of event. So, the listing of
your folders should be: year, month (and
day if you wish, but be consistent, if
you want the day enter the day for all
folders) followed by the event name.
These should be separated by underline
so it is easy to read on your screen. So
you should name folders something like
this:
2003_12_25_Christmas
2004_12_25_Christmas
2003_04_07_Easter
2004_04_17_Easter
XP will list the folders in this order:
2003_04_07_Easter
2003_12_25_Christmas
2004_04_17_Easter
2004_12_25_Christmas
You can see what is happening. Your
folders will be listed by year, month
and day and then the event name. This
makes it easy to find them. You can use
some other system, but use one to list
with a particular order other than name
of event alone. Otherwise you will have
a messy listing of folder names. If your
folders are not properly organized,
right click on a folder name and click
on rename on the opening menu. Then
change the name using the above system
or a system you want.
2. How to organize a collection of
photos in a folder, in the order you
want the photos to be displayed for a
slide show. This will include renaming
the photos from the original name
assigned by your camera.
Make a new folder on your hard drive.
You can also make a new folder under "My
Pictures" if you prefer. Both will work.
Name the new folder something easy to
remember and search for: year, month,
day, event, separated by underline. For
example:
2004_09_16_Summer Vacations
Copy the photos you want to place in a
particular order into this new folder.
You can copy photos to this new folder
from a single folder (first and simplest
thing to do) or from any photo folder
you have to make a new collection. If
you are making a collection, use a
collection name, and the date you are
making it, something like:
2004_11_19_My Collection of Summer
Photos
(this is a little more complicated but
will also be explained below).
Once the photos are copied in this new
folder, open the new folder. Hold the
Ctrl key down and press the letter A.
This will select (highlight in blue) all
the files in the folder.
Right click on the first file (important
to right click on the first file because
renaming will start from there).
Click on Rename on the opening menu.
Type in the name you want, to replace
the current name of the first file.
Any system will work, such as year,
month, day, event. For example type in:
2003_09_16 Virginia Beach Vacation
(101).jpg...and press Enter.
XP will automatically rename all the
files in this folder:
2003_09_16 Virginia Beach (101),
(102), (103), etc. and they will open
(sorted or listed) in the order (101),
(102), (103), etc. If you copy them to
a CD, this order will be maintained.
Two important things when renaming
using the above method.
1. Look at the name of the above file,
you must include a space between the
last character of the file name and
(101)
2. When you rename, don't forget to
add .jpg after (101). If you forget, XP
will warn you (window will open telling
you the file type is being changed,
answer NO) and enter .jpg after this
warning. If you don't, you will not be
able to open the file. If you still do
not enter .jpg after the warning, don't
worry. Rename again and enter .jpg
You can rename any time and as many
times as you want. You are not dependent
on the camera wizard to rename.
You can rename groups of files in a
folder (in the example above, the date
can be 16, 17, 18, etc for each day of
your vacation) just select the group of
files you want and right click on the
first one in the group and rename from
there. For each group you select, just
add (101) after the name you want for
the first file in the each group. So,
you can rename as you want:
2003_09_16 Virginia Beach Vacation
(101).jpg for all photos taken on
the16th.
2003_09_17 Virginia Beach Vacation
(101).jpg for all photos taken on
the 17th...etc,
You simply select all the photos taken
on the 16th and rename, etc.
You can do even better than this.
Suppose you want a slide show and you
want the last three pictures taken on
your vacation to be the first three or
in between some other photos, or
re-order the photos in a folder in any
way.
Easy to do. Open the folder in thumbnail
view, use your mouse to place the
thumbnails in the order you want. Select
all the photos and rename starting from
the first picture adding (101) to the
name you want for the first picture. The
(101), (102), (103), etc will be added
automatically in the order you placed
the thumbnails. They will stay in this
order in your folder and if you copy to
a CD because XP lists (or sorts) by file
name only on a CD.
In this case, you can omit the day and
the first file would be:
2003_09_Virginia Beach Vacation
(101).jpg
If you copied many pictures from
different folders in this new folder and
all you want is to order them in
chronological order, moving thumbnails
in the correct order is tedious. Let XP
do this for you. Change the View from
Thumbnails to Details. In the Details
view, right click on the column header
"Name". This will open a list. Click on
More at the bottom of the list. A list
will open, check the box "Date Picture
Taken". This will add the column Date
Picture Taken in the Details view. Then
you click on the column header "Date
Picture taken" and XP will now change
the list of files (the order of the
listed files) from the name of the files
(the default) to listing files in
chronological order. Now, change the
View to Thumbnails and they are in
chronological order. Select them, rename
them using the above procedure and you
are in business. There is also another
way to do this.
When in Thumbnails view, click on View
on the top bar, then Arrange Icons by on
the drop menu and then select Picture
Taken On. The thumbnails are now in
chronological order. This is fine if all
the photos are of the same year since XP
list the order by MM/DD/YYYY as the
default. If you have multiple years,
change the default to YYYY/MM/DD using
Control Panel, Date,Time options.
Convenient if you want to make a slide
show of pictures from different folders.
Just make a new folder, copy the photos
you want in the new folder, place the
thumbnails in the order you want and
rename.
You are not restricted to only one name
(you use one name for one group of
picture, another for the next group,
etc. and this also avoid making
subfolders to separate pictures from the
same event) and you can control the
order in which each group will open, by
placing a number up front of the file
name for each group. You may have photos
of Christmas, Easter, New Year etc. and
of different years and you want them all
together in the same folder for a big
slide show or save them on a CD to send
to friends. Make a new folder, copy them
to the new folder. Then, place the
thumbnails in the order you want, select
the first group, right click on the
first thumbnail in the group and rename:
1_2002 Easter (101).jpg
Then select the second group and rename
2_2002 Christmas (101).jpg
Placing 1_, 2_, etc in front will
control the order of each group and
(101) controls the order within each
group.
If you want to add another group later
and you want the photos of this group to
be, say between 1_ and 2_, use 1a_ in
front of the file name.
In the above example, after you make the
new folder for your collection, copy
your Easter photos in it and rename
them. Then copy your Christmas photos in
it and rename them. Then copy the next
group in it and rename them. Easier to
do it this way than copying all of them
and then renaming.
Also, after you copy a group, you can
move the thumbnails to change the order
before renaming.
You may also want to add some more
photos in a particular group at a later
time, say your Christmas group. No
problem. Copy the files you want to add
in the folder, move the thumbnails in
the group you want to add them to, where
you want them. Select all the thumbnails
in the group, right click on the first
one and rename. When you rename, you
must change the name in order for rename
to take place. Add something like XYZ
after Christmas. Once renaming is done,
select the same files again and rename
again. Remove the XYZ and you will be
back to the original name.
Note: There is a disadvantage to
changing the original name of files.
This is why I recommend at the start to
make a new folder and copy your original
files in the new folder before renaming.
The disadvantage is this. Many have the
option of video out from the camera to
display the pictures from the memory
card in your camera to a TV for a slide
show. If you change the file names and
copy the files back to your memory card
to display on your TV (or even to just
look at them on the LCD of the camera)
your camera may not be able to read the
files. You can always rename, using the
same format (8 characters) that your
camera uses, but now you will have to
rename each file and this is tedious.
So, be careful what you do with your
original files.
There is a second disadvantage. The
above naming system in an XP system. As
long as you are on XP everything will be
displayed properly with this naming
system. However, if you go out of XP,
the display order is unlikely to be the
same. Particularly true if you want to
play a CD on your DVD player.
Your DVD player will read files on your
CD differently and will want them in the
order 001,002,003, etc. rather than with
the above system. It wants files listed
like:
Image 001.jpg
Image 002.jpg
Etc. to display them in the proper
order. Since you now have your files in
the order you want in a folder, rename
again if you want to copy them to a CD
and play this CD in a DVD player. Easy
to do. Download the free software from
here:
www.irfanview.com
Once installed, open it and click on
File and Batch conversion/renaming.
Select the files to rename, select the
same folder for the new names.
Irfanview will not delete the file names
you made with XP. It will add new file
names in the same folder (or you can
make a new folder). You select a single
new name for all the files and 001, 002,
003, etc will be added automatically.
Open the folder and you will see the
added files. You now copy these files to
a CD. Then you just delete these files.
Select them, hold the Shift key down and
press the Delete key. They are removed
and will not go to the Recycle bin if
you hold the Shift key down when
pressing the Delete key. You will
encounter the same problem if you upload
your photos to a server on the Internet
and you are using the XP naming system.
The order will not be displayed
properly. You need to use the Image
001.jpg etc system. So, again, once you
have your photos in the order you want
them and you renamed using XP, simply
use irfanview to change the name and
upload these files as when preparing
them to copy to a CD for display via a
DVD player.
Note: Although I recommend making a new
folder and copying your files there
before renaming, there is also another
way to do this and you may prefer it
once you are comfortable with renaming.
Here is how to do it.
Open the folder to see your files. Hold
the Ctrl key down and press the letter A
to select (highlight in blue) all the
files. Hold the Ctrl key down and press
the letter C. This makes a copy of all
the files to your clipboard. Hold the
Ctrl key down and press the letter V.
This copies (pastes) all the files back
in your folder. The file names will be
the same, but the words "Copy of"
will be in front of the file names. You
then rename Copy of files.
This way your original files and renamed
files are in the same folder.
This is also very useful when you want
to edit photos with software. You always
edit "Copy of", never edit your original
file.
All this renaming may seem a little
complicated at first, but you can really
manipulate things very well by just
sitting down and understanding the
system. With a little practice you can
get what you want.
However, before renaming, make sure you
make a new folder and copy some photo
files there so you can practice with no
danger to your original files.
After you are comfortable with this,
once you download the files from your
camera in a folder you can skip copying
them into another folder and you just
rename the files.
Once your photos are arranged with
folder names in chronological order, you
can use the free Picasa 2 from
www.picasa.com This will scan your hard
drive for all your photos. After this,
when you open Picasa only your photo
folders will be listed and all the
thumbnails in all your folders will be
displayed. A lot easier to work with
than from Explorer or My Computer
listing.
--
John Inzer
MS Picture It! MVP
Digital Image
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