Renaming Photo Files:
Save Time & Organize Your Pictures
teresa@drakehs.com

So this weekend, I looked down at the digital camera sitting on my dining room table, and remembered that I hadn't emptied it for some time. Digital cameras aren't like the traditional film-and-negative deals… instead of popping a finished canister into a paper bag with my name on it at Walgreens, I'm personally responsible for getting every image I take off the memory card into some kind of format that Grandma can look at.

Though, I have to admit it beats trying not to expose the film while changing canisters. Swapping memory cards at noon in the middle of the St. Louis zoo is much less stressful.

'This is the weekend when I will organize these photos,' I told myself, still looking at the digital camera with determination and focus, 'and upload them to Walgreens, so I can pick up my prints and relive all those wonderful happy family events.'

…Okay, not really. But the rest of the family might want to relive them. I fired up the computer and connected the camera. Both the camera and the computer hummed for a moment or two, and then a window winked onscreen with…

…over four hundred photos.

In desperation, I decided to throw them all on my computer in a "misc" folder, then sort the mess from there. Some I had already transferred over and needed to delete (a few at the risk of my life or my dignity, should said photos become public…), which I did. Others I sifted into clearly and cleverly marked folders, like "Jakes Bday 07." Still, looking at the results of my work I realized that I'd only organized the chaos into smaller piles. All of the photos in "Jakes Bday 07" were named "misc356.jpg," "misc357.jpg," and so on. I wanted each photo to be named per the event, but I didn't want to spend time renaming all sixty pictures I took that night. Sixty…that's a lot of titles, and I'm not that creative! There had to be an easier way.

Sure enough, there was.

Obviously, all the photos could not be named the same thing - they'd all rewrite over one another, or try to, and the ensuing brawl would probably crash my computer. Which is why each photo needed a number after it. I'd be perfectly satisfied with "Jakes Bday 07 (1)" and "Jakes Bday 07 (2)" and so on - that at least beats "misc356."

This is what I did to re-name all the photos in a folder at once with the same event name.

1. Open the folder that contains the photos you wish to rename.
   
   
2. Go to Edit - Select All. Right Click on the first photo in the group and click Rename.
   
   
   
   
3. Assign that picture a name you want to use to identify all the photos in this folder. After assigning it the name such as "Jakes Bday 07" remember to include the file extension as well. In this example we would type in "Jake Bday 07.jpg."
   
   
4. After you have typed the name of the first photo hit Enter.
   
   
5. All the rest of the photos in that folder will be named the same thing with a (1), (2), and so on added to the end of it.
   
   
6. If you get an error asking if you want to rename the system file "Thumbs.db" click NO.
   

Now all my photos are named, per the event and I am happy. At least until I forget to empty my camera for another six months.