Make Finder Item Names Sequential Problem

[cozy]

Hi all. I am new here and new to Automator. I am breaking the forum rules and not searching here, but I have been searching for hours online, with various keywords and phrases and cannot for the life of me find my solution.

First: I am running a late 2008 Macbook with Snow Leapord 10.6.8, Automator version 2.1.1 (247.1).

Here is my script:

I have saved this as an app and dragged it to the sidebar of Finder so that I can click on it easily and run it.

Notice that I have selected "show this action when the workflow runs" in the Make Finder Item Names Sequential. This allows me to decide at the time its run to change the sequential number manually, but I would like to be able to click the shortcut and it just saves a new copy.

What does happen if "show this action when the workflow runs" is that it saves the first file as "Sites_0001", and the 2nd as "Sites" and gives me an error in the Maake Finder Items Names Sequential window that says... "

and doesn't make a sequential copy of the file. It doesn't make a copy at all, unless it is replacing the original, which is not what I am looking for it to do.

I have been battling with this for hours and I can't crack it. If someone can give me some insight as to why this is happening and how to fix it. Apparently, I am the only one on the World Wide Web is having this problem, because I can't find a single thread or blog or anything discussing this.

Oh, I noticed one guy on one web page said that dragging from list view in finder to Automator is bad, I am going through the dialog boxes to make all selections. And for what it's worth, I double click the action to get it into the workflow, but also have dragged and dropped with the same result.

Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to be thorough. Thanks a lot.

Chris

 

[Kaveman]

Thats right, you are just renaming the new Folder passed in and its trying to rename it to Sites-0001 again and again, and that already exists.

I think this is what you are trying to do: Note extra steps AND change exsiting item name to new name Sites

 

[cozy]

Yes, this is working great. One thing, and I don't mean to seem like I am complaining. I am soooo appreciative. You just advanced me light years!!!

My question is how do I not rename the folders inside the site-0001, site0-0002 folder, etc? Here is what I am looking at.

Also, is there a site, or any documentation that has better descriptions than Automator? The in app descriptions are so vague and don't really help in learning the app.

Thank you again Kaveman!

 

[Kaveman]

hmm that's interesting, That is was what I expected to happen but it didn't on mine. Try Turning the Repeat for each subfolder on then off again.

I'm on Lion, that may make a difference.

Sadly, Automator is very black box, you poke it and see what happens. I use the Results tab a lot, to see whats coming out the bottom of a block.

 

[cozy]

hmm that's interesting, That is was what I expected to happen but it didn't on mine. Try Turning the Repeat for each subfolder on then off again.

I'm on Lion, that may make a difference.

Sadly, Automator is very black box, you poke it and see what happens. I use the Results tab a lot, to see whats coming out the bottom of a block.

It is perfect. Thank you very much. Now I will be staring at this for hours trying to dissect it! haha. I never would have put this together without you man. I appreciate it a lot. If I can get my head around this app I will definitely contribute to the forum.

Thank you again, and I'm sure I will have about 1000 more questions in the future.

Chris