Renaming files and folders
Written by: Scott Haneda on Wednesday March 05th 2008, 12:01 am
Filed under: OS X 10.5
How you name your files and folders on your computer is important. It is one of the best ways to locate them later. Often times, I will save a file, and give it the wrong name, spell the name wrong, or just want to change it later.
I would guess the reason many people have issues with how to change a file or folder name is that there is no menu item or command in OS X to start the process. I have a feeling many people stumble on the methods by accident; it certainly is not immediately clear.
There are two ways to rename a file or folder in OS X. Each of these two methods apply equally well to files, or folders.
Rename with the return key
The method most people seem to have the least trouble with is using the return key. Click on a file or folder once, this will select the item. Press your Return key and the file name or folder name will be highlighted. You can now start typing as usual, when done, press the return key once more, and the changes are locked in.
Rename with a delayed click
The second method is with the mouse exclusively. Click on a file or folder once. Wait a second, and click on the file or folder once more. If you time this just right, the file or folder will become selected, and you can type your new name.
Be careful not to click too fast, or this will actually open the file in its default application. You will not harm anything by doing so, but it can be frustrating. Once you get the timing down, it will become second nature.
A small word of caution
In closing, a word of caution. If for example, you are writing a letter in Word, and have the file saved as ‘my letter.doc’. You should not rename the file while you are working on the file. The problem with this is the next time you save the file, it may or may not save to the new name you have given the file.
In a perfect world, this would not matter, as applications would follow the file even after you have renamed it. Not all applications follow these rules. I have never seen this cause data loss, but it will cause you to have a duplicate file. While a duplicate file is not a huge deal, it can be a source of confusion to some.
A word of caution about file extensions (.doc, .pdf, .html, .txt, etc). DO NOT CHANGE THEM! Unless, of course, you know what you’re doing. Changing an extension while changing a file name can cause big problems with files and apps. So be careful when renaming files.
Comment by Michael 03.05.08 @ 6:36 am@Michael, good point. I plan on having a short post on what file extensions are, and when it would be safe to change them, as well as why. I was hoping in most cases, people have the default pref, which is that they can not see the .ext, so they do not have a simple way to even change it.
Thanks for the comment.
Comment by Scott Haneda 03.05.08 @ 8:33 pmCheck out MassReplaceIt too. It lets you batch rename file names, or extensions and even lets you batch replace text within files themselves. You can also save the search and replace commands, so if you repeatedly rename files this app is perfect.
http://www.hexmonkeysoftware.com/
Comment by Rob 03.06.08 @ 7:25 amYou can also do batch renaming with the example scripts included with AppleScript, or use those as a base to make your own customized batch renaming scripts. Even if you’re not a programmer at heart, AppleScript is fairly easy to figure out with a few minutes of logical thinking applied.
Comment by Morgan 03.06.08 @ 12:14 pmI work full time as a Mac guy these days and love it. But, my biggest gripe is the finder. The interface and UI needs to be addressed to make it easier to use.
Comment by Paul Mooney 03.10.08 @ 7:07 am@Paul, if you have specific issues, please do point them out. Perhaps we can cover a post that suggests methods and workaround to others. As of 10.5, I can no longer complain about the slowness of it. I certainly have issues with some aspects, but it is improving.
Comment by Scott Haneda 03.10.08 @ 9:18 amHappy to …
I will put together a list here but in fairness, the windows explorer interface is better in this case - it is just easier for people to find files in Explorer then in Finder. Cut, copy paste etc and knowing which folder files are going into is much better in the windows model.
Strange that really, considering the mac product is so superior.
@Paul, there are some methods I want to cover in regards to how to change Finder prefs to alleviate what you are talking about. Defaults make it challenging to get two windows open at the same time. This makes it hard to visualize a move of a file from one location to another.
Once you wrap your head around SpotLight, and I would say to not even bother in 10.4, but in 10.5 Leopard, it is quite a useful search tool.
More to come, thanks for the comments.
Comment by Scott Haneda 03.11.08 @ 8:51 amI’m late to the party, but glad to find you and all your precious advice. I have a question related to this post about file names. Is there a way to rename more than one file at once? Like, if I have a dozen files called “accounting1″ to “accounting12″ and I now want to call them “books 2007-1″ to “books 2007-12″? There must be another way than having to rename them one by one but I can’t seem to find it.
Comment by Pat in Dakar 03.16.08 @ 3:36 pm@pat, there are a few ways to batch rename files in the Finder, none of them are really built into OS X, the nerdy way would be in the terminal, but we will not put that on you 
If you want a standalone app, there is Name Mangler which as far as I can tell is free still.
If you want a very simple method, you can use an Automator Action, which is more something built into OS X. I have used this one for ages, and it works well for me.
Comment by Scott Haneda 03.17.08 @ 4:52 pm
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