Mac app to rename multiple files?

Software
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I have downloaded to plain text files highlights and notes from my research and readings for a book I’m working on. I then created a mind map by topic with sub-topics for the title of each book/article that I will review for ideas/quotes/reference in my book. I will also import these text files into a research folder in Scrivener for quick reference as I write. But, I want to rename them before importing them into Scrivener.

I want to remove the two words “Kindle highlights” from the beginning of each of the plain text files that I have downloaded for all of my highlights and notes. I have a lot of files and I don’t want to do this manually.

I know there is are good Mac apps for this. Which one would you recommend? Again, I only want to remove the first two words in the file name. I want everything else in the file name to remain the same.

Thanks!

2

This could be done straight from the Finder without any additional apps.

I have not used this for a while so not sure if this is still available. If it is then there is an option to find and replace.

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3

Well, I learned something new and saved time and money. Thank you.

That worked like a charm. I can’t believe I’ve been using a Mac for so many years and did not realize I could do that in Finder. Thanks again!

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Finder is great for something as simple as this. However, for more complicated use cases look no further than Name Mangler. It is a gem of an app and is not nearly as widely known as it ought to be.

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For many years I’ve used A Better Finder Rename. Just launched it this morning, in fact, to remove a specific text-string from 500 webarchives.

https://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/

…but that trick in the link above would have done the same thing. Go free whenever you can!

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I’ll check it out but my use cases tend to be simple and infrequent.

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7

NameChanger is great too and free. Lot’s of nice features.

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Glad to hear this helped you and that it is still available in macOS.

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9

I use Renamer through my Setapp subscription.

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With the recent price change some are reconsidering the value of Setapp.

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11

This does it as well (and a lot more)

I also use a better finder renamer as well as it accepts regex patterns

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FYI I used the Finder trick to rename several dozen files last night and it worked like a charm.

I own ForkLift - the multi rename in it is a little bit clunkier and less powerful than A Better Finder Rename, but both are able to save rename presets, which might be useful for some people (although I tend to need to strip/add different things with different batches, so that feature is useless to me). If you have Forklist, try it and see if you like it. (I still fall back on ABFR.) That said, you probably could create a droplet with Automator which does the same thing for free.

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13

Path Finder is Finder on steroids and also has file renaming capabilities.

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Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I’m checking several of them out. Much appreciated!

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Yeah don’t subscribe to setapp just for this, but if you already have it then it’s a nice app

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I’ve tried a bunch of them and A Better File Rename really is better than the rest for me. It’s so good I bought the lifetime license. You can have anything from quick simple renames to complex, multi-step processes and slice and dice the file names nine ways to Sunday.

The sheer number of options is insane. The simplicity of search templates and droplets make it really easy to save searches for later use, whether from within the app or outside of it (that’s the droplet).

I have several droplets that I use for things like converting case of file names (why do people still use all caps?), adding the current date and/or time to the file name, or adding different descriptor text to the end of a file name. Just drop a file on the saved icon and it’s renamed no matter how complex the ranaming.

I cannot say enough good things about this app.

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I originally bought ABFR 8.x in 2010, then upgraded to the Forever Upgrade in 2012 - an absolute bargain for me. I used to use it to rename imported RAW images based on their EXIF dates/times, but don’t need that any more now that it’s built into Lightroom. Still, it’s a powerful and sophisticated renamer and I’m glad it’s in my bag of tricks.

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You have lots of good suggestions here, but I can’t resist one more app that you may already own–Hazel. If you already know how to use Hazel, file renaming is another handy use for it.

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Adobe Bridge is great for renaming files in batch with a lot of control and granularity into how to manage prefixes, suffixes, extensions, dates, metadata, etc.

And you can download it for free. Yes, don’t get mislead because it says trial for free. Adobe Bridge is forever for free in its full version.

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Hm, I also was confused when posted the link and read it said “free trial” as I use the full version for free.

So, Just in case, I took a look: It could be that Adobe started a free trial for every CC tool when they first downloaded Bridge (i.e., via the CC Desktop app), and the email notifications are automatic on that.

If you want to just get Bridge on its own, then you can use the direct download link instead. For more details, see:

It’s True: Adobe Bridge CC Is Completely Free for Everyone, for Life

and / or: