It’s right there under your nose, no need for apps

Jan 19, 2015 14:24 GMT  ·  By

Every wondered why every OS vendor has been adamant to include universal batch-editing tools with their OSes? Well, starting today you can scratch Apple off that list. In OS X Yosemite, renaming files in bulk is easier than you could have ever imagined.

You probably won’t believe this (as neither did I), but there’s a new option in every right-click menu for multiple-file selections that lets you batch-rename the selected items in a few clicks. I learned this on Reddit today, and I’d be ashamed to take credit for this guide without properly thanking user slark first.

Apparently, very few people have noticed that Yosemite, released a few months ago, has added a little extra something in the contextual Ctrl-click / right click menu that appears when you want to do stuff with multiple files at once.

In between the options to Compress and Burn the files (who burns discs anymore?), there’s a handy new batch-rename option that says “Rename [number of] Items.” That placeholder I put in Brackets obviously appears as a number, depending on the number of files you’ve selected. So, for instance, if you select 10 items, it will say “Rename 10 items.” So here’s how to do it, with 10 files selected for our guide.

How to rename multiple files in OS X Yosemite

Step 1 - Select your files using the Cmd key, Shift key, or all of them using Cmd+A. Step 2 - Right-click / Ctrl-click the selection to bring up the menu. Step 3 - Select “Rename 10 Files.” Step 4 - Select one of the following: Replace Text to find and replace specific wording / Add Text to add a designation before or after the file’s existing name / Format to insert a custom name and subsequent numbering for each file. Step 5 - Click Rename and your files will instantly receive their new names.

Batch-rename files on OS X (6 Images)

Selecting all the files you want to rename
Replacing textInserting text to be found and replaced
+3more