Batch Photo Renaming

If you want to change the file names your camera gave your photos you can do this by "batch renaming" the photo files.

FastStone Viewer is a free program that can do this. Download here.

  • Open the viewer
  • Select all the images in the folder and choose “Batch Rename Selected images” (right click or press F4 or you can find it under Tools).
  • You’ll get a menu with all your selected images listed in the “Input List” (on the right) in your sorted order.
  • use #### NAMEas the “Rename As” template where NAME is the name you want and #### will add a four digit sequential number before the name (the number is placed in front if you are loading these into our kiosks and you want to organise by filename, otherwise the number after the name is ok)
  • Press “Rename” and you’ll see it rename all your files
  • Press “Done” and you’ll see the thumbnails with their new names.

Learn more about this and other useful tips for sorting and organising photos from Jill, our Personal Photo Organiser.  Read more here

 

If you want to rearrange photos into the order you want, use thumbnail rearrangement with batch renaming

FSV let you re-arrange thumbnails then rename them to match the new order. This makes it ideal for PhotoBooks, slideshows and combining photos from mixed sources with different names and dates.(you can’t undo changes so practice on a copy of a folder to familiarise yourself with this method)

  1. Combine photos from multiple sources into one folder if necessary
  2. Open the folder in thumbnail view.
  3. Click on an image (or select a few), continue to hold the mouse button down and drag the image where you want it to go: you’ll see a red line appear between the two images where you want this image to go.
  4. When you release the mouse button, the image moves to where the red line is.
  5. Keep dragging the images around until you get them in the order you want.
  6. Now you need to rename/number the images to ensure they stay in this order: Do not exit until you have done this or you will lose everything
  • Select all the images in the folder and choose “Batch Rename Selected images” (right click or press F4 or you can find it under Tools).
  • You’ll get a menu with all your selected images listed in the “Input List” (on the right) in your sorted order.
  • Make sure the starting number for the sequence is 1
  • use ###* as the “Rename As” template
  • ### will prefix the original file name (indicated by the asterisk) by a three digit sequential number (use 4 if more than 999 images in folder)
  • The asterisk at the end of your “Rename As Template” keeps the original file name. You can replace the asterisk with  a new name (e.g. ### Grandad)
  • Press “Rename” and you’ll see it rename all your files
  • Press “Done” and you’ll see the thumbnails with their new names.
  • UNORGANISED PHOTOS

  • REARRANGED PHOTOS

  • RENAMED TO MATCH NEW ORDER